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Trump's administration loosened inspections to allow more self-reporting in places like meat packing plants.

bee_rider 2y ago
I mean, I’m worried about the general loosening of regulations. But this situation sounds like it was discovered in 2022 and then the outbreak happened in 2024. Edit: just to be explicit, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that cost-cutting or whatever resulted in fewer inspections, which resulted in less discovery of issues. But since the issue actually was discovered… I dunno, it seems more like a decision making problem, if a health issue is known about for two years without any action taken. Maybe there’s some other way to blame budget cuts there… I don’t see it though.
- vlovich123 2y ago
  That's assuming the Biden team had it on their radar as something to undo. They kept a lot of Trump-era policies unchanged. Changes done in one administration don't end just because the other party is in power. It's a cumulative effect.
  - bee_rider 2y ago
    Is the decision to close one factory (or impose penalties until they clean up) on any elected official’s radar? I’d expect that to be handled at a lower level, but I don’t know how that stuff really works.
    - vlovich123 2y ago
      It's not about the one factory and it not being on elected official's radars is exactly the problem of why it didn't get fixed (+ it's easier to cause damage than repair things). As another person highlighted, Trump gutted the USDA [1] > During the Trump administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers published and funded objective analyses of issues such as climate change, the efficiency of food assistance programs, and tax cuts that mostly benefit the richest farmers. It wasn't received well. > Trump officials proposed deep cuts to USDA research agencies. When Congress wouldn't go along, the administration came up with plan B: Move two agencies — the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service — far away from Washington. Doing this gutted the ability for the USDA to execute and stay on mission and this was intentional. This kind of outbreak would be the natural result. [1] https://www.npr.org/2021/02/02/963207129/usda-research-agencies-decimated-by-forced-move-undoing-the-damage-wont-be-easy https://www.npr.org/2021/02/02/963207129/usda-research-agenc...
ApolloFortyNine 2y ago
Assuming what you said was true, it sounds like they knew about it anyways over a year earlier.

I mean, I’m worried about the general loosening of regulations. But this situation sounds like it was discovered in 2022 and then the outbreak happened in 2024. Edit: just to be explicit, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that cost-cutting or whatever resulted in fewer inspections, which resulted in less discovery of issues. But since the issue actually was discovered… I dunno, it seems more like a decision making problem, if a health issue is known about for two years without any action taken. Maybe there’s some other way to blame budget cuts there… I don’t see it though.

vlovich123 2y ago
That's assuming the Biden team had it on their radar as something to undo. They kept a lot of Trump-era policies unchanged. Changes done in one administration don't end just because the other party is in power. It's a cumulative effect.
- bee_rider 2y ago
  Is the decision to close one factory (or impose penalties until they clean up) on any elected official’s radar? I’d expect that to be handled at a lower level, but I don’t know how that stuff really works.
  - vlovich123 2y ago
    It's not about the one factory and it not being on elected official's radars is exactly the problem of why it didn't get fixed (+ it's easier to cause damage than repair things). As another person highlighted, Trump gutted the USDA [1] > During the Trump administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers published and funded objective analyses of issues such as climate change, the efficiency of food assistance programs, and tax cuts that mostly benefit the richest farmers. It wasn't received well. > Trump officials proposed deep cuts to USDA research agencies. When Congress wouldn't go along, the administration came up with plan B: Move two agencies — the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Economic Research Service — far away from Washington. Doing this gutted the ability for the USDA to execute and stay on mission and this was intentional. This kind of outbreak would be the natural result. [1] https://www.npr.org/2021/02/02/963207129/usda-research-agencies-decimated-by-forced-move-undoing-the-damage-wont-be-easy https://www.npr.org/2021/02/02/963207129/usda-research-agenc...

ApolloFortyNine 2y ago

Assuming what you said was true, it sounds like they knew about it anyways over a year earlier.