4 ms·

Biden's top doctor nominee made more than $2M doing pandemic consulting

version_five 5y ago
Good? Why wouldn't one want a well respected and sought after expert to have this job?
- AndrewBissell 5y ago
  The main problem is that if someone has a strong financial interest there being a "pandemic," they may hype threats to create demand for their services. If you dig into who paid him -- Carnival Cruise Lines, AirBnB, "hospitals & health insurers" -- it's not hard to imagine all kinds of conflicts of interest it might create
  - version_five 5y ago
    Someone exaggerating the importance of the area they're responsible for is a definite concern in any bureaucracy. No program lead is ever going to say "you know what, I dont think we're needed anymore, let's scale back or close down". Same idea for other forms of making work for themselves as you say. But to me this problem is actually likely to be reduced when the responsible person is more established and renowned, because they are more likely to have legit new opportunities to move on to, and are not invented to milk an position for all they can. In the balance, I think it's always better to have someone objectively good and experienced, including the inevitable relationships they already have that could look like conflict, than to have some unheard of person who may want to use this as their personal ticket to importance (not saying that would be the case here, but I would guess the risk is higher)
  - detaro 5y ago
    > Carnival Cruise Lines, AirBnB sounds more like someone with strong financial interest in saying that the pandemic is over, if we want to play that game.
    - AndrewBissell 5y ago
      Yes, hence the "all kinds" in my comment.
dekhn 5y ago
Yes, and? Is this supposed to be a bad thing? I think the idea is that we're supposed to read this article and think that he's a bad person for doing his job, because there's some chance he could abuse his governmental powers.
- cyanydeez 5y ago
  most of the game played against democrats is to wedge them between the capitalist democrats and the progressives, mostly to keep pogressives from shosing up at midterms. expect more fud.

Good? Why wouldn't one want a well respected and sought after expert to have this job?

AndrewBissell 5y ago
The main problem is that if someone has a strong financial interest there being a "pandemic," they may hype threats to create demand for their services. If you dig into who paid him -- Carnival Cruise Lines, AirBnB, "hospitals & health insurers" -- it's not hard to imagine all kinds of conflicts of interest it might create
- version_five 5y ago
  Someone exaggerating the importance of the area they're responsible for is a definite concern in any bureaucracy. No program lead is ever going to say "you know what, I dont think we're needed anymore, let's scale back or close down". Same idea for other forms of making work for themselves as you say. But to me this problem is actually likely to be reduced when the responsible person is more established and renowned, because they are more likely to have legit new opportunities to move on to, and are not invented to milk an position for all they can. In the balance, I think it's always better to have someone objectively good and experienced, including the inevitable relationships they already have that could look like conflict, than to have some unheard of person who may want to use this as their personal ticket to importance (not saying that would be the case here, but I would guess the risk is higher)
- detaro 5y ago
  > Carnival Cruise Lines, AirBnB sounds more like someone with strong financial interest in saying that the pandemic is over, if we want to play that game.
  - AndrewBissell 5y ago
    Yes, hence the "all kinds" in my comment.

Yes, and? Is this supposed to be a bad thing? I think the idea is that we're supposed to read this article and think that he's a bad person for doing his job, because there's some chance he could abuse his governmental powers.

cyanydeez 5y ago
most of the game played against democrats is to wedge them between the capitalist democrats and the progressives, mostly to keep pogressives from shosing up at midterms. expect more fud.