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The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question of

The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question of policy, not science. All science can do is illuminate certain imperfect information. And as we saw at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, different people interpret those data in very different ways, and with an eye toward different priorities. Always taking the most precautious position in matters of public health is not a scientific position. It's a very expensive policy position that needs to be weighed against other priorities.

WalterBright 5y ago
The CDC has always been politicized. This was obvious even back in the 80s with the AIDS crisis. The idea that any powerful government agency can even be non-political is very naive.
- credit_guy 5y ago
  > The idea that any powerful government agency can even be non-political is very naive. The US military appears to be quite non-political actually. And quite well functioning too.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    Other then all the issues about integration and equity, and all the pork involved in military procurement.
pbhjpbhj 5y ago
Personally, I consider that politicians should be overt about this. For example "The science is telling us that schools are a principle path of transmission for flu-like diseases, but we want to keep schools open to keep people in work and maintain our economic system". Rather than pretending that it was a big surprise that schools were a principle route of transmission, as one example. Of course people will vote for politicians who do insane things as long as those politicians don't tell people about it, or manipulate the news cycle to hide their idiocy, so ...
- monksy 5y ago
  Something to note: Before the CDC said that kids were a concern about spread earlier this year. The Chicago Mayor (Lightfoot) was trying to force kids back into school again. She tried fighting with the Chicago Teachers Union to do this. (Lied about mitigations in schools, the city doctor "magically announced it's safe in schools", etc) There was the Chicago Public Schools head literally posting a thing that "a kid in the school said baseball games are much better in person than on the tv" and she used it for justification to support inschool teaching. Tweet: https://twitter.com/janicejackson/status/1350222205553156100?lang=de https://twitter.com/janicejackson/status/1350222205553156100... This is the elected officials.
throw0101a 5y ago
> The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question of policy, not science. "Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm" * https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic... Here it is: * https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-Playbook.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-... Page 9 explicitly names "Coronaviruses" as a Tier 1 concern. The transition team had a tabletop wargames / exercises on a pandemic: * https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-... See also: > The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts on the ground there leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has learned. > Most of the reductions were made at the Beijing office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and occurred over the past two years, according to public CDC documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with four people familiar with the drawdown. * https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21C3N5 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-... It should be noted that pandemic preparation was started by Bush43: * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ Obama carried things forward during his eight years.

WalterBright 5y ago

The CDC has always been politicized. This was obvious even back in the 80s with the AIDS crisis. The idea that any powerful government agency can even be non-political is very naive.

credit_guy 5y ago
> The idea that any powerful government agency can even be non-political is very naive. The US military appears to be quite non-political actually. And quite well functioning too.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Other then all the issues about integration and equity, and all the pork involved in military procurement.

pbhjpbhj 5y ago

Personally, I consider that politicians should be overt about this. For example "The science is telling us that schools are a principle path of transmission for flu-like diseases, but we want to keep schools open to keep people in work and maintain our economic system". Rather than pretending that it was a big surprise that schools were a principle route of transmission, as one example. Of course people will vote for politicians who do insane things as long as those politicians don't tell people about it, or manipulate the news cycle to hide their idiocy, so ...

monksy 5y ago
Something to note: Before the CDC said that kids were a concern about spread earlier this year. The Chicago Mayor (Lightfoot) was trying to force kids back into school again. She tried fighting with the Chicago Teachers Union to do this. (Lied about mitigations in schools, the city doctor "magically announced it's safe in schools", etc) There was the Chicago Public Schools head literally posting a thing that "a kid in the school said baseball games are much better in person than on the tv" and she used it for justification to support inschool teaching. Tweet: https://twitter.com/janicejackson/status/1350222205553156100?lang=de https://twitter.com/janicejackson/status/1350222205553156100... This is the elected officials.

throw0101a 5y ago

> The problem with this thesis that the CDC has been "politicized" is that the level of precaution merited in the face of a novel virus is very much a question of policy, not science. "Obama team left pandemic playbook for Trump administration, officials confirm" * https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic-playbook-for-trump-administration-officials-confirm https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-team-left-pandemic... Here it is: * https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-Playbook.pdf https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-... Page 9 explicitly names "Coronaviruses" as a Tier 1 concern. The transition team had a tabletop wargames / exercises on a pandemic: * https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-warning-scenario-pandemic-132797 https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/16/trump-inauguration-... See also: > The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts on the ground there leading up to the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has learned. > Most of the reductions were made at the Beijing office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and occurred over the past two years, according to public CDC documents viewed by Reuters and interviews with four people familiar with the drawdown. * https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-cdc-exclusiv-idUSKBN21C3N5 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-... It should be noted that pandemic preparation was started by Bush43: * https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1283304/ Obama carried things forward during his eight years.