The New York Times reports today on life inside the CDC during the early days of the COVID pandemic. In early March 2020, a bunch of young CDC scientists gathered in a small park across the street from headquarters to discuss whether COVID could be transmitted by people who showed no signs of infection. And if it could, why was the public not being told?
To the scientists gathered outside, trainees in the agency’s vaunted Epidemic Intelligence Service, the implication was clear: C.D.C. leaders realized that the virus was being spread not just by people who were coughing and sneezing, but also by people who were not visibly ill. But the agency had not yet warned the public.
....It was an extraordinarily difficult time even for veteran scientists at the agency, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the C.D.C.’s principal deputy director until her retirement in May 2021. If they were silent about the risks to the public, it was only because government researchers were muzzled by the Trump administration, she said. But “most of the media was vilifying the agency.”
....The first big shock came in February 2020, when the Trump administration reprimanded Dr. Nancy Messonnier, a senior C.D.C. official, for warning Americans to prepare for a pandemic.
....In Honolulu, where [Dr. Daniel Wozniczka] was deployed, only one infected person had the symptoms the C.D.C. had identified early on....As Dr. Wozniczka became increasingly alarmed, Dr. Kitsutani encouraged him to share his concerns with superiors in Atlanta.
When Dr. Wozniczka returned to Atlanta, he realized that the possibility of asymptomatic transmission was a surprise to no one. All through February, agency scientists had reviewed the increasingly compelling evidence, and data from the C.D.C.’s own investigation of residents at nursing homes in Seattle in early March confirmed it.
A while back I think I figured that Donald Trump had been responsible for maybe 100,000 extra COVID deaths all by himself. I think I might have to revise that estimate upward.
It is quite surprsing that it took so long to come out. Do they say why they didn't tell until now?
It doesn't take a medical person ( I am not a medical person ) to know that a person exhibiting no symptoms can transmit quite a few diseases.
I knew there was going to be a problem since Mid-December, 2019, when I got my email from the State Department informing us (those of us who traveled the world) that there was a "problem" disease in China, with at least one person dead.
There were tons of red flags to anyone paying attention in a society that deals with facts and not wishful thinking.
donnie could have saved at least half a million Americans. Instead he played stupid games.
It seems you missed my question. I meant why they didn't tell us what comes out now in the article that Kevin relies on.
That Trump messed up (intentionally) the US response to Covid is absolutely obvious, but not to people that don't follow closely the news, and that is a bad state of affairs. If the people in the article talked earlier, more people would realize it.
Sorry to come on so strong. My question is: Why would "anyone" presume that only people with symptoms could spread disease? Who teaches that?
At one point, the CDC was supporting the idea that some 20 to 30 percent of those infected were asymptomatic. And that comment was made the first six months of the pandemic, before July of 2020. That was before the idea became public that those infected may have been asymptomatic for some eight to ten days before symptoms appeared.
BTW, the people in the article did talk earlier. We really should find out why their word did not get out earlier, preferably before the next pandemic.
I figured that Donald Trump had been responsible for maybe 200,000 extra COVID deaths all by himself. I think I might have to revise that estimate upward.
Numbers vary widely but that's about the low range for estimates of deaths in the Ukraine war. I'd guess both numbers are quite a bit higher.
If the suppression of information that the public needed to know has any parallel, it's probably what happened in China in the early days of the outbreak. None of the lower levels would dare report what was going on, and the higher-ups presented the public and the world with false information about the risks. By the time word got out it was too late.
Dr. Deborah Birx said that Trump was responsible for every case other than the first 400,000.
And where is the media outrage, not buried in a nerdy NYT article, but splashed into headlines? I hate to engage in "what ifs," but it's hard not to fantasize about how this would have been reported if President Hillary Clinton had done the same thing.
I'm guessing part of the thinking is that trump is already in hot water, so there is no need to "go after him" on old COVID stories. After all, it's not "news," is it?
Like +10. That and the journo-mandatory "both siderism". They can't report on that former guy, or even any of the current Qpublican crop, without a balancing, "equivalent" hit on Democrats.
Okay, so Trump can be held responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. Let's see:
* BUT!! When Joe Biden's failed evacuation of the Kabul Airport took place, he (personally) let in a suicide bomber who KILLED DOZENS!
* BUT!! Look at all the mass shootings that are taking place On Joe Biden's Watch!
* BUT!! Hunter Biden! Need we say more?
Yeah, reporters COULD be discussing the death toll from COVID under that former guy. There are plenty of irrelevancies and nothingburgers they could use to "balance the scales". More of them should read the WaPo's "Fact Checker" column by Glenn Kessler. Even when Biden is right, somehow he's WRONG!
When an adult makes a mistake, the trust of children is crushed and their myth of the adults' omnipotence is cracked. When a clown has victory, it's still just a joke. When an adult pulls off a miracle, it's expected. The same when a clown slips on a banana peel. The question is: what sells papers and garners clicks?
I'd like to see an article on life in the CDC under Trump. He was attacking that agency from day 1, and kept zeroing out it's funding--which Congress would restore. Under those circumstances, people who can, leave. New hiring is harder because what recruit wants to move to a new place and start a job at an agency that might be shut down by the time they unpack?
By the time Covid hit, that agency was hurting--just how bad, I don't know.
Trust me, it wasn’t good. Trump’s first choice to run the agency resigned in disgrace when her major investments in tobacco came to light. Then she was replaced by religious zealot and backbone-free Robert Redfield. When Dr. Messonier got muzzled and the science ignored NO ONE was surprised. CDC Is far from perfect but the agency rank and file did all it could to get the truth out while the powers that he were withholding necessary equipment from blue states that need it most and pushing horse tranquilizer and bleach
Ron DeSantis is personally responsible for 30,000 dead Floridians. I wish that was noticed in the MSM.
Keep reminding them. People do read letters to the editor.
CDC isn't just a regular job, what they knew should have been communicated in a timely fashion, reprimand or no, getting fired or no, but what you "know" is always a lot less than you "suspect", and speculation that could cause public panic is another thing, so there's a more cautious standard there that is more art than science, so definitely some nuance is in order here (and treating each issue and context on its own, not jumbling them together).
The reprimand of Dr. Nancy Messonnier is something that shouldn't be forgotten, and if that certain someone is the candidate in 2024, all caution to the wind when it comes to talking about real leadership.
That research which Katherine Wu / The Atlantic pointed to, has been made public: https://zenodo.org/record/7754299
Can't wait for you to post! 😃
Katherine Wu added a new story on the release of Crits-Christoph (Worobey) review of some of the data previously released in a 2022 paper.
Can't wait for you to write up about it! 🦝🐶🦠