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From the article: > It underscores the country’s fragmented public health systems and its decentralized and underfunded reporting system, which hobbled the U.S
by robomartin 4y ago
From the article:
> It underscores the country’s fragmented public health systems and its decentralized and underfunded reporting system, which hobbled the U.S. pandemic response.
> a $13 million project that’s been viewed over 2.5 billion times
Does anyone believe the CDC would be able to create and run --for three years-- the equivalent to the JHU pandemic website if we gave them $13 million dollars?
Of course not. That money might not las a week, maybe not even a day.
Funding isn't the problem. It's about incompetence. Fix that first.
You can't throw money at incompetent organizations and make them better, you'll just build a larger incompetent organization.
Note I did not say incompetent people. You can have otherwise competent people as part of an organization that can't find it's way out of a paper bag. This happens more often then people realize.
It is no secret that government organizations are characterized by waste and organizational incompetence. I am reminded of this every time I drive our crumbling roads in Southern California. Money isn't their problem. We have been paying for road maintenance for decades...it just doesn't get done or it is done poorly.
Emergencies have unique ways to quickly highlight competence and incompetence. We need to fix the real problems, not throw money around hoping divine intervention will sort it out.