This is concerning to say the least.
WHO: “Test. Test. Test.”
USA: “Eh, maybe we test less, keep the numbers down.”
Wouldn’t surprise me if this was taking place elsewhere cough China
Edit: Sorry it’s not a direct link, CNN is lame. Article discusses how healthcare providers are being told to not test at this point. Highly suspect if you ask me.
Begins? More like continues. That’s what we get with an administration that routinely gaslights the public and ignores facts.
Don’t worry I’m sure all the relevant information has been moved onto a classified server.
For safe keeping.
Anything to keep us zombies from eating the rich.
INFECT THE RICH!
I suspect that much of the infection was due to the rich in the first place. It wasn’t poor people going on skiing holidays in the Italian alps then bringing the virus back to their countries. The initial vectors for the inter-country spread were likely jetsetters and people traveling internationally on business.
Probably a factor. It is certainly a factor on Long Island right now! But you do not have to be jet set wealthy to get on a cruise ship, which has been a significant vector.
@anon29537550 You are a practicing MD, ya? Are you able to speak to access to test kits (and results) over the course of March through today? It strikes me that testing capacity should be going up by the week, and the range of patients being tested should be expanding to less obvious cases so infection vectors can be traced. This all seems particularly backwards to me, but hey, I’m a layman.
But I also know everything we are seeing now is a DIRECT consequence of decisions made by one Donald Trump over the past weeks and even couple of months. So if we do not have as much testing capacity today vs. what we could have, if Trump was taking this seriously from mid-January like he should have been, then I have to assume that the guy who is on record as not liking the numbers to go up, maybe deliberately held back on ramping up production, so we’d be in this very situation now.
Most places access to testing is somewhere between terrible and none. NY is making their own and has much better access now. CA is doing the same. In a week or two UVA will have their own testing up and running and our access should get better. Comes down to states doing their own thing because the feds have abdicated. Wealthier states can do much more than poorer states. But a piecemeal response is never going to be optimal. But it’s all we’ve got. And of course, it’s all Obama’s fault! (/s)
If there’s a limited supply/capacity, they’ll need to. Thanks Trump.
Otherwise, if someone might have been exposed or has non-critical symptoms, the advice is the same: self-quarantine.
The problem is down the ladder where there are jobs that need to keep going, like railways, truckers, warehouse workers, forklift drivers, etc… No testing and little protective gear will be a world of hurt.
Do you consider it to be… normal? That the Federal Government of the United States of America has “abdicated” on helping test for the spread of the most dangerous pandemic virus in 100 years? I ask this in seriousness, I’m not in the healthcare profession. But this seems like the type of thing we have major Federal agencies set up to monitor, get ahead of, coordinate with international agencies on, and act as the central coordinative force for ramping up on things like testing kits.
I confess to not having a good idea of what international cruises cost, but I assume that the days of transoceanic travel by poor people in steerage (the way my grandparents came to America) is mainly over. I assume getting a really accurate picture of how the disease spread will keep professors of public health busy for years.
Most places access to testing is somewhere between terrible and none.
This is true in much of the developed world (as opposed to the US) as well. For example, they’re not testing people in quarantine here in Norway unless the symptoms get quite severe. The reason is a shortage of tests, though that wasn’t an intentional political decision like it was in the US.
I’m impressed at the relative ease with which South Korea got a good test regimen in place.
Our definition of normal has mutated beyond all recognition. Once upon a time the government learned from previous disasters and took steps to be proactive. Our current orange bastard rejects even being reactive, unless it threatens his personal power. No, this is not normal in any way, shape or form. I do not credit conspiracy, because that would require sufficient intelligence to cook up such. Il Douche is predatory and feral, but intelligence is certainly not one of his descriptors.
ETA just for reference:
“Thanks” for confirming my sense of things. I wouldn’t put it beyond the guy to hold back on activating all resources possible to hold down numbers. Maybe, you know, to buy some time while reallocating one’s portfolio…
100% true. Here in WA, I know people that have been sick with symptoms for well over a week, and have had negative influenza tests. They are being refused COVID-19 tests because they aren’t sick enough to be hospitalized.
It’s a fucking sick joke.
It’s going to be hard to cover up a million dead bodies. We should be hitting the inflection point of the logistic curve in a couple weeks? Considering the trend lines and the total lack of action, this tragedy is going to be undeniable.
If only Obama had left us better prepared for this. If only China had told us sooner about it. etc etc
Oh, you mean the Deep State?
Either way the advice would be the same: self-quarantine. With a limited test capacity, the priority has to be keeping the medical system clear.
The time to test people who probably have COVID-19 is when their symptoms are gone, to see if the virus is gone and it’s safe for them to come out.
Yes, it sucks.
