Bunglecrats strike again!

[Geoff Guenther + 317]

South Korea can now test 140,000 samples per week and has tested 230,000 individuals (at least 460,000 samples). To date, the US has tested 8600 samples. Because of their speedy action and isolation guidelines, coronavirus is on the decline in South Korea while we have no accurate view as to the US infection rate.

South Korea has the lowest fatality rate of any country so far because their medical system has not been overwhelmed. A 0.6% fatality rate is much better than the 3-6% we see in countries that were overwhelmed.

It has not been made public why the CDC has not been able to make accurate tests or why they rejected importing tests from the WHO.

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

3 hours ago, Geoff Guenther said:

China may yet end up being the safer partner to trade with in terms of crisis management.

You really have to be kidding! These are the people who gave the world SARS, the Avian Flu, the Swine Flu, and a new variant of the latter two on a yearly basis. There are countless articles on wet markets being breeding grounds for novel viruses that originate from animals--and yet they do nothing about them. 

They apparently covered up the outbreak in Wuhan for several weeks. The ophthalmologist who first reported it was castigated, and then ultimately died of the disease. We've had what, a couple dozen deaths in the US? And now you're making China out to be the safer partner to trade with?

Unbelievable! You really might want to think this over before you spout out such nonsense. 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

3 hours ago, Douglas Buckland said:

How exactly did the US health system ‘bungle’?

How could they have had enough testing kits on hand for a specific virus that nobody knew anything about? How do you justify a quarantine when you do not know what you are quarantining against. Lack of info from China didn’t help matters.

So, as you are playing ‘Monday morning quarterback’, please tell me EXACTLY how the US bungled things.

Reread the article linked above. Dr. Chu developed a test at the University of Washington. Any competent lab could do this. It isn't like the CDC does these tests themselves. What happened was a no bid contract went out to CDC cronies and they're the ones who bungled the test with a bad reagent. Instead of making good by allowing other competent labs to do their own tests, CDC doubled down on stupid and corrupt, keeping the monopoly intact. 

@Gerry Maddoux is totally correct that there's a large number of competent and diligent employees at CDC. Unfortunately they're under a thick layer of pointy haired bosses who are A) less intelligent and B) are following an agenda of personal enrichment over public safety. That's the deep state and it's been impossible to root out since the 1963 Civil Service Act. 

Pointy haired boss and his boss

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

Then there's This

CDC only tested 77 people this week. That's some world class dereliction of duty there. 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

Taiwan handled this right. 

Full disclosure, my wife is from Taiwan and we've been following things there closely. This article was the best English language explanation. Notice how the WHO kowtows to mainland China, even though they're the proximate cause of all this. 

[0R0 + 6,251]

7 hours ago, Geoff Guenther said:

Can I play devil's advocate?

China shut down for a month while we in the west scoffed at them and dithered in our own preparedness plans. Up until now, the US has played a role in every significant world crisis for 80 years. Because of the complete ineptitude shown with COVID19, China now looks impressively stable and capable in comparison.

China managed to take a virus that had infected hundreds of thousands of people and shut it down heavy-handedly but early. China will get infected again because the west has refused to act. We don't know how long Europe and America will be shut down for.

China may yet end up being the safer partner to trade with in terms of crisis management.

Only Italy lost it entirely and shut down - though partially, as people are allowed to work and shop not locked.

Travel and congregation restrictions are spreading throughout Europe and the US. They are spreading in the US even where only a few cases have popped up in a state. 

China's big  issue and source of criticism was over the denial and lack of response during the two months before the Wuhan isolation. Once it was a smack in the face situation that could not be hidden, they took measures. We don't know how real the results are. It will only be known once travel and work return to something closer to normal. 

What China has done was effective in cutting off the spread of the virus. But the economic damage is big. And more significantly, they damaged agriculture and the food supply where there is still a very large population with insufficient nutrition, particularly of proteins and fresh vegetables. Piles of rice and noodles at home are not enough. These people may not get Covid 19, but you have opened them up to be in a weakened state for whatever they do encounter. It is unclear whether they actually saved the country or created longer term health problems that will haunt them the rest of the year.

The shutdown of Hubei was reasonable. But the massive shutin of 782 million people at the peak was not. The disorganized travel health safety response and quarantine procedures were terrible. And mostly useless. The actual food delivery system that was supposed to keep the quarantined people fed, didn't actually materialize as the community CCP committees fell on the job from exhaustion or compassion fatigue and the neighborhood estate management companies that were suppose to take up the slack and organize food deliveries didn't do it. 

The 60% rise in JD.com grocery deliveries is not enough, besides which, 2/3 of the population can't afford to shop that way at all. 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

1 hour ago, 0R0 said:

What China has done was effective in cutting off the spread of the virus. But the economic damage is big. And more significantly, they damaged agriculture and the food supply where there is still a very large population with insufficient nutrition, particularly of proteins and fresh vegetables. Piles of rice and noodles at home are not enough. These people may not get Covid 19, but you have opened them up to be in a weakened state for whatever they do encounter. It is unclear whether they actually saved the country or created longer term health problems that will haunt them the rest of the year.

This. Scurvy could end up killing more Chinese than this virus ever could. 

[Ward Smith + 6,615]

New York has drive through testing in New Rochelle right now. That's because they ignored the CDC. Think about that for a minute. 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 3/12/2020 at 7:12 AM, Geoff Guenther said:

Can I play devil's advocate?

China shut down for a month while we in the west scoffed at them and dithered in our own preparedness plans. Up until now, the US has played a role in every significant world crisis for 80 years. Because of the complete ineptitude shown with COVID19, China now looks impressively stable and capable in comparison.

China managed to take a virus that had infected hundreds of thousands of people and shut it down heavy-handedly but early. China will get infected again because the west has refused to act. We don't know how long Europe and America will be shut down for.

China may yet end up being the safer partner to trade with in terms of crisis management.

We don't eat bats, snakes, dogs, cats, reptiles, insects, etc. (With rare exceptions).  Our cities are tiny compared to China's. Our cities allow for far more social distance. (Correct me if you disagree). We have far better health care and we do not live in severely polluted cities or suburbs. We no longer have many people with a long history of being heavy smokers. We also allow free communications so fewer health, or other problems, can be hidden by authorities as was the case with Wuhan. 

How many of you remember the children and pets from adulterated milk protein that was contaminated with a deadly plastic component. I lost a dog to a Walmart branded dog food that contained it. That problem went on for years and may still. 

We still have a huge problem with synthetic opioids such as super high potency Fentanyl. 

I am sure that there are many other problems as well. I hate to think what many of our pharmaceuticals contain, after learning that many are produced in China. China has already threatened to cut them off if we decide to produce them elsewhere! 

We need to make sure that we have very viable alternatives to ALL Chinese products!

Edited March 14, 2020 by ronwagn

[frankfurter + 562]

On 3/12/2020 at 4:25 AM, 0R0 said:

CDC has been in full sabotage mode since the start of the pandemic. Their record of tripping over themselves at every step, particularly in the testing policy and test development, is beyond bad policy. It reeks of deliberate sabotage to create mayhem and promote the spread of the disease. Presumably because the CDC is a 95% Democrat bureaucracy as are all their counterparts in Washington DC. Among Dems, "never Trump" seems more important than anything else, including the agency's mission. 

Weren't you the one to defend your CDC and to criticise the CCP for failure to respond, withholding information, lying about facts, repressing anyone who tried to leak the truth, etc, etc.?  Who is now deliberately killing whose citizens?  Now we see who the real, evil, communists are, no?  

Your own doctors are predicting 150 million infections very soon.  Already, 40 million flu cases and over 20,000 deaths. How will this pan out?  

Fact: this covid19 was bio-engineered in a US military lab, and 1st appeared on US soil in Sept 19.  Yet you deny this. 

Well, good luck to you. 

 

[frankfurter + 562]

On 3/12/2020 at 9:19 PM, Geoff Guenther said:

South Korea can now test 140,000 samples per week and has tested 230,000 individuals (at least 460,000 samples). To date, the US has tested 8600 samples. Because of their speedy action and isolation guidelines, coronavirus is on the decline in South Korea while we have no accurate view as to the US infection rate.

South Korea has the lowest fatality rate of any country so far because their medical system has not been overwhelmed. A 0.6% fatality rate is much better than the 3-6% we see in countries that were overwhelmed.

It has not been made public why the CDC has not been able to make accurate tests or why they rejected importing tests from the WHO.

I have noted your hatred towards China.  re Korea, you conveniently omit one important fact.  Korea can now test +100k per week, because China supplied them with the means to do so.

 

[frankfurter + 562]

2 hours ago, ronwagn said:

We don't eat bats, snakes, dogs, cats, reptiles, insects, etc. (With rare exceptions).  Our cities are tiny compared to China's. Our cities allow for far more social distance. (Correct me if you disagree). We have far better health care and we do not live in severely polluted cities or suburbs. We no longer have many people with a long history of being heavy smokers. We also allow free communications so fewer health, or other problems, can be hidden by authorities as was the case with Wuhan. 

How many of you remember the children and pets from adulterated milk protein that was contaminated with a deadly plastic component. I lost a dog to a Walmart branded dog food that contained it. That problem went on for years and may still. 

We still have a huge problem with synthetic opioids such as super high potency Fentanyl. 

I am sure that there are many other problems as well. I hate to think what many of our pharmaceuticals contain, after learning that many are produced in China. China has already threatened to cut them off if we decide to produce them elsewhere! 

We need to make sure that we have very viable alternatives to ALL Chinese products!

Your hatred towards China is well noted. 

Your own officials polluted the waters of Flint, causing thousands of children to be permanently toxic, brain damaged, and some deaths. yet NOBODY has been held accountable and punished.  

The milk episode in China was perpetrated by a few managers at one dairy. A few among thousands of such managers, one among hundreds of dairies.  It was not perpetrated by anybody within the CCP.  The managers were tried and executed. Problem solved, no further problems. 

Compare this to how YOU allow the Flint criminals to walk away freely and allow the problem to continue. 

Your hypocrisy is simply revolting.