CDC Director Humiliated Into Submission
“I did the math,” said Porter, holding up a whiteboard on which she wrote the associated costs of a coronvirus test at $1,331 bill.
Trump’s CDC director Robert Redfield was not prepared for the exchange even though Porter sent in her questions a week ago and repeated them the day before.
Totally Clueless
Assuming the above is true, how is it Trump’s CDC director is not even aware?
What About Ohio?
Relatively Contained
Exponential Rise in Cases
Who Gets Tested?
https://twitter.com/ChrisVannini/status/1238257349170802688
US Testing Competence
House members were floored as they learned that roughly just 11,000 Coronavirus tests TOTAL have been conducted compared to the fact that in South Korea, 10,000 tests are conducted A DAY.
Question of the Day
Dear President Trump
No Worse Than the Flu™ ?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
The problem is the Obama Administration corrupted and made unfit for purpose our government agencies. The FBI, DoJ, CDC, NASA, you name are filled with political hacks and Affirmative Action hirelings. I checked out former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein’s sister, Nancy Messonier. She’s a competent professional at the CDC and directs the office for immunization and respiratory diseases. She held a press conference the other day and blamed Trump not her own agency for failing to be prepared. Hell’s bells, it was the CDC who developed that defective coronavirus test kit not the White House. Her cv lists her biggest accomplishment as innoculating more than 150 million people against meningococcal meningitis. Wonderful except they are all in Africa!
A simple question. If it so obvious we should be prepared for a pandemic like this, why weren’t we in that position when Obama left office? Then the country could have just benefitted from the previous groundwork by the Obama administration.
I actually blame the CDC for being spread too thin and for allowing “mission creep” to detract from its original mission. Do we really need the CDC to address “climate change” and “dating violence”?
“I actually blame the CDC for being spread too thin and for allowing “mission creep” to detract from its original mission. Do we really need the CDC to address “climate change” and “dating violence”?”
All of government are.
They should only involve themselves in the gravest and most universally agreed upon of areas. Leaving everything else to individual discretion.
No bureaucracy will ever be as efficient at dealing with “Climate Change,” as changing ones wardrobe, and perhaps place of residence, is. And neither will any bureaucracy ever solve “dating violence” even remotely as efficiently, as Smith&Wesson did with the introduction of the LadySmith.
My kids get the next 2 weeks off. After that, who knows? Maybe online instruction. I can work from home indefinitely and plan to. I’m not in a high risk group for death, but even if I get infected and survive, I don’t want a nasty ailment that may require an emergency room visit.
It is a favour to those less fortunate to have caught the virus :
“It is the mood you live, with all those eyes that look at you, that ask you for help even if the voice does not come out. Many heal, of course. But the more days pass the more people in their fifties are seen arriving and many, especially the elderly, do not make it. Some – if they are over 70 years old and other important diseases – arrive with the acronym “ncr”, not candidates for resuscitation “.
The CDC attempt to devise a universal coronavirus test kit was an excellent idea. It met with bad luck and poor execution, probably because of the extremely limited time window with which to work.
Apparently, the kit could detect Sars-Cov-2 just fine, but posted false positives on other viruses also.
The need for a universal coronavirus test kit will immediately become apparent to all if either Sars, Mers, Ebola, and/or H1N1 flu mutate and slip quietly into the middle of this worldwide goat rodeo.
I’d be a little cautious in criminalizing CDC actions to date.
In my view the CDC has not been criminal, but they have made some bad calls. When there is a fire on the deck of the boat, the highest priority is to contain and extinguish the fire as quickly as possible. It is not the correct time to design and deploy an automated universal fire suppression system.
I like the boat fire analogy. Let me extend it:
My boat fire is the result of an incoming cannon round from starboard. As captain, I blew it by not having a lookout in the Crow’s nest. I sound General Quarters and, as the gun crew mans my only deck gun, I take the precaution this time of sending a lookout up the mast to keep watch behind me. Naturally, it’s rough seas. During his climb, In the 20 ft. waves, the lookout falls onto my deck gun bending the breech and putting it out of action.
A dinky little fleet tub named Corona pulls alongside and accepts my surrender.
The Naval War College curriculum is immediately changed to stress the dangers of climbing the mast in heavy seas…
a universal coronavirus test kit was an patently FOOLISH idea — you must have no experience whatsoever in any type of engineering field.
the end effect will be countless dead due to the lack of testing and quarantine.
Five decades in high performance computing, but I’m a slow learner.
would nasa, just prior to launch, re-engineer a field-tested mission-critical component based solely on theory (or more aptly, hunch)?
you should apply at the cdc, i hear they’ll be many open positions soon.
I like your Space Shuttle analogy. Each mission had around 170 failure events, with many of them being second-guessed in advance. If they had only been able to access your obviously superior analytical skills, both Challenger and Columbia could have been avoided.
Please call CDC immediately and inform them of which of the 29,882 mutating nucleotides they’re all fretting over testing are going to be the culprit(s) in future pandemics.
It smells to me like the shortage of test capability is because there is some back room deal between the CDC, FDA and some company that will receive exclusive rights to the test at HUGE private and public expense. And… they effed it up. If this turns out to be true, the whole bunch should be prosecuted for negligent homicide and spend the rest of their days in prison IF they survive the mandatory infection with corona virus. Fascists!
There’s a shortage because there is no infrastructure in place specifically for rapid testing of the same test over and over. each labs is set up to test for “everything”. Which means generality and customizability has been emphasized over throughput.
Each preparation, each procedure, is different, for every sample which comes in. Sometimes developed on a ad-hoc basis, in one-to-one consultation with a requesting doctor for the specific situation he faces. So there’s no economies of scale anywhere. It’s not just about lack of a “kit” which magically work by just existing in an envelope somewhere. With each test, there is a procedure attached to it. Which requires lab staff, reagents, equipment etc.
In East Asia, they are set up much more specifically for pandemic testing. Which is fundamentally different, since every single test coming in, is the same. The procedure is the same, the pipeline is the same.
So they have automated it: As long as the heath care worker administrating the test follows steps 1,2,3,… when performing the test, and it is shipped to the test facility according to procedure 1,2,3; the tests get loaded into a machine by the “thousands,” and results are spit back out. And then te results are fed back to the end user and health care system via steps 1,2,3… (a bit oversimplified, but that’s the gist of it)
It’s getting a bespoke suit measured and tailored, vs an automated garment factory.
Or, more pertinently, it’s a “designer” in Cupertino slowly and laboriously doing a mock up prototype of a new IPhone; vs an Asian factory producing 10 million of them: One approach possibly slightly improves the ability to perhaps treat an exceedingly rare condition in the most cutting edge fashion possible; while the other results in millions of people getting basic treatment instead of being left out.
One more thing, stop talking about globalization as if were a new thing. It is not. Humans have been globalizing since the beginning of time. Does anyone need a refresher as to how smallpox kill the Aztecs so many years ago… Trying to stop globalization is as silly as trying to stop the sun from setting everyday.
I have been a free health care at point of delivery all my life. Ditto for world surveillance of diseases conducted on our dime. The so called virus hunters. Not because altruistic motives but mostly by self preservation motives. I want epidemics stopped before they start so that society can advance as much as possible. Republicans and Trump supporters do not believe in any of that. They figure if you can not pay for your own medical care well your fault. Do not use my tax dollars to cure you. Now this is affecting the markets and work losses are sure to follow. So how will that work out for all of you Republicans? Go to the supermarket and see the empty shelves. panic selling and panic buying is a sign of no confidence on our president. Most people by know even Trump supporters are beginning to realize that a clown president is entreating until a crisis arrives, then they ask where is the government to lead. Well you all were asking for less government and to get rid of the elites mission accomplished now we all will pay. Still most of the Trump cult still will say well, I still would vote for him over Hillary you know to stop forever wars and what have you. Well unless we get lucky or change curse this may end up killing more people that recent wars. So there MAGA
I hope we can quickly get through this period of screeching and scapegoating and move on to exploring how humanity can be sitting on it’s ass, allowing wet markets to repeatedly launch plagues and pandemics…several times now within living memory.
Perhaps, we could even discuss how WHO spent over $840 million of last year’s $2 billion budget on first class air travel and five star hotel bills while scientists researching viruses and bacteria have been trained to expect rejection of study grants not promising to squander billions more on our trendy, AGW boondoggle.
We should all pay attention to this damn thing until it passes, but the time to have helped was in December, when Mish was frothing at the mouth and flopping on the floor about it before it was fashionable.
We can help get an early warning system in place if we don’t lose interest yet again when this crisis passes, but insist on our leaders leading…everywhere.
I agree with you abend237-04, but I do not see how the situation will improve unless it gets bad, at which point we will hopefully focus more on what we can do to help each other. It is the age old situation playing out, “I do not have to run faster than the bear chasing us. I only have to run faster than you.” That attitude is unlikely to change until people understand that the bear chasing us is going to take a bite out of almost everyone.
We don’t need no stinkin’ testing. It’s all a hoax.
Thank you Mish for educating me for over 10 plus years. And for referring me to Chris martenson who my wife and I have been watching since his first virus video. Lastly Stuki this is one of the most profound summaries I’ve read. Thank you brother.
Dear Kudlow: Please see Ohio. This is NOT contained and, in fact, far worse than what anyone knows. If there are actually 100k in Ohio you can just forget it. Game over.
If? The game was over a long time ago. Shutting the border was xenophobic. Political correctness is more important than preventing the spread of an infectious disease.
I agree and I already assumed it was far worse so it wasn’t really a shocker the shocking part was having an authority actually say it. We just had 1 death and no reported cases in my area and everyones like no big deal. Me on the other hand i’m like hello idiots……….that means this crap is spreading around here people just dont get it magically. Unreal.
Also, ive been saying for a long time all this PC crap is getting way out of hand and is really biting us in the ass. Now it’s killing us.
Elevate science.
“The Mayor of Florence is facing fresh criticism after he encouraged Italians to “Hug a Chinese” as a stand against racism before Italy was later forced to quarantine its entire country because of the coronavirus.”
Who is John Galt?
Dr. Redfield, Clean up your room. You’re grounded!
Or…. “CDC Director Makes Rep. Katie Porter Look Like a Thuggish Grandstander, Out to Make Political Capital from a National Emergency. “
True. But at the same time, as Mish mentions, he was informed of the questions well in advance. He could have been ready but instead of preparing he looked incompetent, like the rest of the current administration, from the top man down. When you set yourself up like that, don’t be surprised when the other side takes advantage of it.
Commenting on the CDC director’s commitment to Katie Porter to make tests available to all American’s regardless of insurance: that was definitely not done by Pence the day before as claimed by Bob in the tweet.
What VP Pence said is that insurance companies agreed to waive the co-pay for a test (and possibly deductible, it’s not entirely clear) for those who maintain a typical medical insurance plan. Also, Pence indicated people will still need a doctor’s script to order a test. Pence’s plan does not have a hope of achieving containment, as anyone without typical medical insurance and regular doctor visits is likely to avoid being tested due to the high test cost and long lead time for getting an unexpected doctor’s consultation. It was yet another example of the administration being days late and dollars short in getting its arms wrapped around SARS-Cov-2.
We are now feeling nostalgic about those innocent days from a month ago where supposedly East Asian people are more susceptible because of the Ace2 receptor, smoking, etc, etc that’s now just so much BS. Nowadays if I mention that 6.7% death rate in Italy, people will counter with “Italy is an old people country!!” as if there’s very few old people in China, South Korea, and Japan!!
People are just dumb.
Yep. The numbers are a bit of a nuisance for us Aryans that thought ACE2 differences would make us immune. Infection rates in Norway and Denmark are among the highest.
I guess that could also be because their socialist medical systems are better at finding the affected people
But either way doesn’t really suit the RWFWs
Do we know the heritage of Scandi infections? High number of Asians in Scandinavia..
Let’s take Sweden as an example. There’s 200K Asians in the country out of 10 million plus people. So 2%. BUT East Asians (Chinese, South Koreans) only number around 50K, so 0.5%.
Nah, if you are still looking for proof that we non East Asians are immune, please look elsewhere. Anyway, those people who died in Seattle? None of them were Asian I think or at least very few people of them were. And of course, don’t forget the Italians.
The Nordic infection rates, are due to higher testing rates compared to the rest of Europe, and the US.
When you are not specifically prepared, there is a quantization effect benefiting de facto “preparedness” in smaller countries with their own health systems: They all have to have “some” lab capacity. And since you can’t chop Danes and Norwegians into pieces, that results in an “overcapacity” during periods of low demand, that the bigger systems, like Italy’s and Spain’s, don’t have.
So, while absolute capacity to perform tests aren’t greater in, say, Norway than, say, Spain, per capita it still is. Which comes in handy now, even though superficial statistics may make it look like they are harder hit than those with a lower per capita capacity to test. Switzerland is also in the same high per capita test capacity, high reported infection rate club.
Compared to the high speed, largely automated, testing infrastructures in place in East Asian countries, they are all positively stone age, though. Just accidentally effectively less so, than their larger peers. Like the US….
I also see a report that Mass. has tested 200 so far. In Australia, New South Wales, about the same population has tested 15,000. And that is not as many as should be done because of a shortage of tests
In 1500 world population is estimated to have been 500 million.
Today it is around 7000 million.
To some, loss of a few hundred million now is not a barrier.
I agree there are far too many people but who wants to volunteer to leave lol.
I take the view that no one should have a purposeful hand in someone else’s demise, except maybe when under direct attack from them, but you know how blurred definitions of self defence can be, especially when resources are stretched.
For example you have one plate of food between two people. If you share it you both starve. Do you offer it to the other, or fight over it ?
I guess it depends on own philosophy, you could both sit staring at the plate till either in their abstinence finds inspiration to a solution, possibly that of the other just dropping off their perch, or do you simply rely on more obvious metrics, as in whether the other has bigger muscles than you.
No one has ever said any race was immune. Some has hypothesized that some will be less susceptible. And it’s way to soon to judge one way or another.
‘House members were floored as they learned that roughly just 11,000 Coronavirus tests TOTAL have been conducted compared to the fact that in South Korea, 10,000 tests are conducted A DAY.’ About sums up the situation right there.
The CDC can’t test. The house don’t know. Trump doesn’t have a clue. Planes fall out of the sky. Noone can figure out why nor what to do. But everyone stands around thumping their chests while shrilly screeching about how they are somehow useful for something more than being firewood.
America a century into the Fed Age. What’s left of her. All that’s left of her.
We actually needed something like this to see the reality of how far we have fallen in efficiency and effectiveness, change has come
An epidemic with high casualties breaks out in a neighbouring country, you do the following:
Test all incoming and quarantine until tested.
If not quarantine all incoming.
If not ban travel.
At the same time you conduct random tests within own country of those with symptoms that match, to find outbreaks that have escaped the previous barriers.
Those last tests do not have to be accurate, they channel possible cases to further more accurate testing. This can be explained to and understood by society.
Where outbreaks occur in the country you try to isolate them, you also put the nation on alert to take precautionary measures.
You buy or develope better testing procedures during that time.
There is nothing genius about the above, it is obvious.
What has occured worldwide are half measures and confusion. This has ensured pandemic, many casualties, and a powershift towards increased control of citizenry and national activity to that end, as compared to the original suggestions. That with a globalised setting and influence of shared purpose. I do not think that this was through stupidity, though many leaders might be incompetent or compromised in their decisions,I think this was a choice. I also think that there are those working against efficient handling subverting stricter initial approach, or efficient management.
The WHO made available a large number of kits early, not enough but a start.
The US could have ramped up own production of those basic but inferior kits
China is now sending by purchase 100 000 kits to Europe.
Roche is licensed today by US to sell high volume testing kits.
In Spain they removed restrictions on testing based on contact history.
Reading current tests 98 % reliable.
So there will be mass testing soon, but :
Governments everywhere messed up the window of containment, they could not have synchronised that failed approach better, but then they all follow the same guidelines in terms of reaction. So the testing now will find the pandemic they “missed”, even though many many people could see it in advance.
It makes you wonder.
Madrid, cases roughly doubling daily, travel to sixty countries restricted for Spain, local quarantines, regional quarantines in the country.
Portugal moving faster, state of emergency and school closures, restricción of business with congregation nationwide etc., as epidemic starts in the country.
In the US, have heard there may be many tens of thousands of untested cases already…
In a globalised world, it may be naive to think that there will no longer be those who argue their importance with our lives.
The boders will have changed from geographical territory and national identity to individual limitation and personal expression, but the underlying forces at work are the same.
we’ve been told for weeks mass testing was coming.
This thing just like Trump are not the causes of America’s downfall. The rot started a LONGGGGG time ago. The chicken’s coming home to roost, that’s all. All Americans have been delusional for a long time.