I absolutely agree that Trump is going to try to cover up the spread of the virus out of all the standard wannabe dictator reasons, but that is a separate scandal going on in parallel with the scandal of the CDC’s ineptitude. There’s no political appointee who’s in charge of adminstering tests for novel viruses. It’s some bureaucrat 5 rungs down the civil service ladder who’s a drone and who supervises drones and who is supervised by a drone, etc., and they can’t actually do their jobs. Under a real president, there would be intense pressure coming from the political heads to make sure that the bureaucrats don’t embarrass the administration, but this president simply doesn’t gaf about Americans, so the bureaucracy has full rein to freely shit the bed.
If you’d done a poll two months ago, I’m sure that the CDC would have gotten high marks for confidence in their professional ability (me included), but oops, turns out they’re clowns.
He can control the info from federal health depts, but not at the state and local level without descending into new levels of fascism and dictatorships. So either we wake up soon or total anarchy.
Tons of great information in this thread, but I think it’s making me paranoid. Had very mild shortness of breath the last 2 days - no other symptoms. Can’t stop worrying. I’m 29 so I’m probably fine, but also a bit of a hypochondriac.
So now it’s just NTSB that has the reputation as a highly competent and respected organization. Wonder how long it will take for NTSB to beclown itself.
I’d like to give a hearty LOL to bill gates, who has spent the last decade obsessed with the spanish flu and doing everything in his power to get us ready to deal with exactly this sort of situation. Donate your money, your current plan isn’t working.
I don’t think he will be able to control testing much longer since FDA approved development of new test kits. He can control aggregate reporting at Federal level, but states like MA and CA will be testing and reporting independent of the Feds IMO.
But the Czech government is acting quickly. The couple that got it was quarantined along with the 18 other people on the bus they took, 2 cab drivers they drove with and a waiter that served them.
There are 5 cases and they’ve tested 231 people. Sixteen tests pending.
As much as I hate the people in charge, they are competent when they need to be.
Quarantined the waiter?!? Alright when I greet a table from now on I’m going to start with “hello everyone, my name is mr_unstoppable and I’ll be your server tonight. Have you all been here before? Has anyone been to the Hubei province of China in the last 14 days? Any questions about the menu? Do any of you have fever or shortness of breath? Would anyone like to get started off with an appetizer?”
So get in this morning and a couple of colleagues are vigourously cleaning up the work station of a guy who just got back from Europe. Was in Rome for a couple of days. Came back Sunday and came into work yesterday. He feels fine. His girlfriend calls and insists he see his doc. He does and his doc shrugs and says “do you feel ill”. “No.” “Ok nothing I can do.” “Wash your hands alot.”
Apparently discussion occurs last night between owner and chief sales guy and they decide to tell him to stay home for a couple of weeks.
My wife has just returned from Washington State where she has been for 8 days on a family matter. Everyone knows this, I keep dropping fucking hints but apparently we all good now.
That said, the president here is a Czech-speaking carbon copy of Donald Trump. But at least the position of president is mostly ceremonial in this country.
Unfortunately, the guy who really is in power, Andrej Babis, is a total of piece of shit. He’s a billionaire who committed subsidies fraud against the EU and was a part of the secret police force that oppressed Czech and Slovaks while protecting the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia during the 1980s. Somehow, his party is a huge favorite to remain the largest one in the country come October 2021.
But hey, at least his government is responding properly to coronavirus.
I know at least a couple of the large hospital networks are developing their own tests to do in house. Any positives will be reported to the cdc and state health departments.
