CDC royal screwup

[ex-khobar Andy]

I've been supportive of CDC - everyone makes mistakes and the test procedure errors may have been a problem with a contractor. Regardless, you are responsible for your sub's errors and that's not an excuse.

This latest one however is unbelievable although of course I believe it. It doesn't shake my belief in science, but maybe in science as practiced in a large bureaucratic organization.

Apparently CDC, when enumerating CoV tests carried out around the country, has been combining numbers for both the virus testing and the antibody testing. Yes they are both types of test in the same sense that ox-carts and semis are both road users. They have entirely different families of technologies and, even more to the point, very very different purposes. I can see why a governor or even a president might mix the two and we might excuse her or him for a momentary confusion.

But CDC has been doing this.. (It's The Atlantic. Normally it's behind a paywall after five [IIRC] free articles but they are like so many publications providing free CoV coverage.) That's just idiotic. I can see some spokesperson making a mistake especially in the heat of battle but this has to have been repeated time and time again and so many people must have noticed and said nothing. Many of the states have followed suit which means that basic calculations such as mortality and frequency and even transmission rates are fucked up beyond all recognition.

[BoSoxGal]

Interesting piece I started last night.

The CDC Has Been on a Steady Decline. We’re Just Finally Noticing.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I hadn't seen that Slate piece but I agree - and of course FAA is another example of what used to be acknowledged as world leadership. While USA had undoubtedly the largest economy in the world, it could afford to lead the world with institutions such as these and the funding paid off many times over in respect from other countries, even if grudgingly given. If the guys in the big house at the end of the street have loud parties and piss everyone off that's one thing: but if they invite the neighbors to those parties and give a super BBQ every now and then, that resentment can become acceptance and even admiration, given time.

I think this started with Reagan - or at least became mainstream under him - with his famous dangerous nine words: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Crass idiocy - and I really wish LJ were here to defend Reagan. He wouldn't convince me, but he'd put up a good fight. Institutions such as CDC can only take public execration for so long without buckling and I have seen the changes at EPA under some of the folk that Reagan brought in such as Annie Gorsuch, Neil's mother. Even in the UK for much of the seventies we relied on EPA (Nixon's creation) to lead the science.

[Darren]

I hadn't seen that Slate piece but I agree - and of course FAA is another example of what used to be acknowledged as world leadership. While USA had undoubtedly the largest economy in the world, it could afford to lead the world with institutions such as these and the funding paid off many times over in respect from other countries, even if grudgingly given. If the guys in the big house at the end of the street have loud parties and piss everyone off that's one thing: but if they invite the neighbors to those parties and give a super BBQ every now and then, that resentment can become acceptance and even admiration, given time.

I think this started with Reagan - or at least became mainstream under him - with his famous dangerous nine words: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." Crass idiocy - and I really wish LJ were here to defend Reagan. He wouldn't convince me, but he'd put up a good fight. Institutions such as CDC can only take public execration for so long without buckling and I have seen the changes at EPA under some of the folk that Reagan brought in such as Annie Gorsuch, Neil's mother. Even in the UK for much of the seventies we relied on EPA (Nixon's creation) to lead the science.

I'm not sure if it started with Reagan. You would hope the government would hire competent people. The person at the top may set the tone, I'm not sure the organization entirely marches to the same beat.

You would think CDC personnel would know better than to produce test kits in the same lab where they worked with the virus.

The early info was that a contractor had provided reagents that didn't work. Now we know from an FDA whistle blower it was incompetence. If you look at the CDC's budget growth over the years, We didn't didn't get the bang for the buck. What we got was mission creep.

Do we need multiple federal agencies infringing on other agencies' turf?

I offer an experience I hope doesn't apply. Last summer I bought nine used books at a tent sale which priced books at eight for ten dollars. The two teenagers couldn't figure out how much I owed. They had a calculator.