Just for Dutch - the apolitical CDC et al

[Bill Vanek]

BOOKSHELF

Tested and Found Wanting

A former Food and Drug Administration commissioner surveys what went wrong
with America’s response to the Covid pandemic.

By Alex Tabarrok

Scott Gottlieb is uniquely qualified to write a book on America’s response
to the Covid-19 pandemic. Physician, former Food and Drug Administration
commissioner, board member for both pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and genetic
sequencing firm Illumina and presidential adviser: Dr. Gottlieb saw the
crisis from multiple angles. His book “Uncontrolled Spread” is everything
you’d hope: a smart and insightful account of what happened and, currently,
the best guide to what needs to be done to avoid a future pandemic.If
there’s one overarching theme of “Uncontrolled Spread,” it’s that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed utterly. It’s now well
known that the CDC didn’t follow standard operating procedures in its own
labs, resulting in contamination and a complete botch of its original
SARS-CoV-2 test. The agency’s failure put us weeks behind and took the
South Korea option of suppressing the virus offthe table. But the blunder was
much deeper and more systematic than a botched test. The CDC never had a plan
for widespread testing, which in any scenario could only be achieved by
bringing in the big, private labs.

Instead of working with the commercial labs, the CDC went out of its way to
impede them from developing and deploying their own tests. The CDC wouldn’t
share its virus samples with commercial labs, slowing down test development.
“The agency didn’t view it as a part of its mission to assist these
labs.” Dr. Gottlieb writes. As a result, “It would be weeks before
commercial manufacturers could get access to the samples they needed, and
they’d mostly have to go around the CDC. One large commercial lab would
obtain samples from a subsidiary in South Korea.”At times the CDC seemed
more interested in its own “intellectual property” than in saving lives.
In a jaw-dropping section, Dr. Gottlieb writes that “companies seeking to
make the test kits described extended negotiations with the CDC that
stretched for weeks as the agency made sure that the contracts protected its
inventions.” When every day of delay could mean thousands of lives lost
down the line, the CDC was dickering over test royalties.

In the early months of the pandemic the CDC impeded private firms from
developing their own tests and demanded that all testing be run through its
labs even as its own test failed miserably and its own labs had no hope of
scaling up to deal with the levels of testing needed. Moreover, the author
notes, because its own labs couldn’t scale, the CDC played down the
necessity of widespread testing and took “deliberate steps to enforce
guidelines that would make sure it didn’t receive more samples than its
single lab could handle.”

Dr. Gottlieb is much kinder to his friends and former colleagues at the FDA.
My view is that the FDA shares in the failure. The FDA does not have
authority over laboratory- developed tests, so in ordinary times a lab can
develop a test without seeking FDA approval. But the FDA, using the Covid-19
emergency as a pretext, asserted that any SARS-CoV-2 test needed its approval
before it could be deployed. Thus the logic of emergency was inverted.
Instead of lifting regulations and giving priority to speed, the FDA
increased regulation and slowed test deployment.Dr. Gottlieb, to his credit,
cannot be accused of hindsight bias. On Jan. 28, 2020, one month before the
United States recorded its first Covid death, he and a co-author warned in
these pages that we must “Act Now to Prevent an American Epidemic.”
Correctly predicting that testing would be a bottleneck, he urged the CDC to
bring in private test suppliers as quickly as possible. One wonders how many
deaths might have been averted had Dr. Gottlieb’s advice been followed.The
CDC failed. What worked? The American model worked. Namely, private incentive
and ingenuity backed by a supportive federal government. Operation Warp
Speed, the Trump administration’s effort to produce vaccines, was the
shining jewel of the American model. The federal government promised to buy
hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine from private manufacturers (so long
as the vaccines worked but regardless of whether they would be needed). It
also supported very large and expensive clinical trials,
and it lifted burdensome rules and regulations. The advance market-commitment
model is very powerful in an emergency. We should have used a similar model
for masks and tests.Dr. Gottlieb has good suggestions for preparing for the
next pandemic. He makes the case for a sentinel surveillance system that
would routinely sequence flu samples for viruses and that would equip every
sewage plant in the United States and eventually the world with sequencing
systems. We also need a national testing clearinghouse that can balance
testing demand across all our labs, and we need public-private partnerships
so that instead of producing bespoke tests we produce tests that run on the
biggest, fastest testing systems used in the private sector. All worthy
ideas, but many were already legislated in the 2006 Pandemic and All-Hazards
Preparedness Act—and most were never implemented. We need to think more
deeply about the institutions needed to align policies with the incentives of
market participants.Dr. Gottlieb’s idea to fix the Strategic National
Stockpile is a good example. The government let the stockpile dwindle so
there weren’t enough masks when we needed them, and the masks that were
available were often moldy. Instead of a stockpile, Dr. Gottlieb suggests
what I call a “flowpile.” The government wouldn’t store anything but
would instead pay firms to increase their inventories with production going
into the inventory and sales coming out. A flowpile doesn’t need periodic
restocking or reauthorization, and once the system starts, firms have an
incentive to lobby to keep it going. Want to produce a public good? Tie it to
some pork.Covid has killed more people than died in the battlefields of the
bloodiest war in American history, the Civil War. The horror of the Civil
War, however, was redeemed by breaking the chains of slavery. No such
redemption is possible for the pandemic. It didn’t have to happen.
“Uncontrolled Spread” explains why it did, and how to keep it from
happening again.Mr. Tabarrok is the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at
George Mason University.

[VegasJerry]

On Thursday, September 16, 2021 at 11:20:18 AM UTC-7, Bill Vanek wrote:
> BOOKSHELF
>
> Tested and Found Wanting
>
> A former Food and Drug Administration commissioner surveys what went wrong
> with America’s response to the Covid pandemic.
>
> By Alex Tabarrok
>

> Scott Gottlieb.....
Aa member of the board of directors of drug maker Pfizer, Inc, and a Trumpit.

LOL! How fucking many times do I need to bitch slap your ignorant ass?

> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention failed utterly.

No, it did not.

Now take this fucking Trump idiot and fuck off; or address all those questions you've been running from...

[Dutch]

That's all well and good, but I guarantee you that the people who are
resistant to the Covid vaccine have not read this book. You got it, I
got it, the CDC and every fucking doctor in every hospital and lab and
on every fucking TV show everywhere is telling us to get it. It is a
no-brainer, so stop making it political. And yes, there is vaccine
reluctance across the political spectrum but it is the right wing media
that is making it political. Telling people to get it is not a political
statement, telling them to doubt it usually is. Think about it, if the
US beats Covid, Biden will get credit. Do you think the right wants
that? I know that sounds ghoulish, but if the shoe fits..

[Bill Vanek]

On Sep 16, 2021, Dutch wrote
(in article <si0bta$jcf$1...@dont-email.me>):

Does your ignorant ass have any clue how many medical personnel are refusing
the vaccine? Of course not. And how am I making it political? That was done
long ago by others.

> And yes, there is vaccine
> reluctance across the political spectrum but it is the right wing media
> that is making it political. Telling people to get it is not a political
> statement, telling them to doubt it usually is. Think about it, if the
> US beats Covid, Biden will get credit. Do you think the right wants
> that? I know that sounds ghoulish, but if the shoe fits..

Brain damage in all its glory. You can’t even hide it.

[VegasJerry]

Including FOX (but not one of the nuts one one of the shows):

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtNJz3Llnlrbga8YVEbI9LBm7_QZsg?e=9VSuq0

And

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AtNJz3Llnlrbga8ZM9RY9QKhNLPvBw?e=MseBdT

[VegasJerry]

Knew he wouldn't answer.
Knew he's run...

[VegasJerry]

And being fired? THIS is a reason to not take what Trump himself took?

[Dutch]

Are they epidemiologists or physicians, no, nurses and aides, and they
are probably Republicans, because 95% of Democrats are either vaccinated
or committed to it. In other words, by being vaccinated you are acting
with the common sense of a Democrat, congratulations.

> And how am I making it political? That was done
> long ago by others.

It's something that has to be sustained, you could stop, you know
better, but you don't care about doing the right thing.

>> And yes, there is vaccine
>> reluctance across the political spectrum but it is the right wing media
>> that is making it political. Telling people to get it is not a political
>> statement, telling them to doubt it usually is. Think about it, if the
>> US beats Covid, Biden will get credit. Do you think the right wants
>> that? I know that sounds ghoulish, but if the shoe fits..
>
> Brain damage in all its glory. You can’t even hide it.

Really? The Republican Party is fully behind a guy who is trying to end
democracy. Let that sink in. The same the guy who let hundreds of
thousands of people die for political expedience. If you think anything
is beneath Republicans then you are delusional.

[Tim Norfolk]

On Friday, September 17, 2021 at 8:50:14 PM UTC-4, Dutch wrote:
<snip>

> Are they epidemiologists or physicians, no, nurses and aides, and they
> are probably Republicans, because 95% of Democrats are either vaccinated
> or committed to it. In other words, by being vaccinated you are acting
> with the common sense of a Democrat, congratulations.

<snip>

There are quite a few anti-vax doctors out there, including the D.O. Tenpenny, who testified in Ohio. I don't know about epidemiologists.

[BillB]

You can find a percentage of nuts in any profession, but the AMA says 96% of their members have been fully vaccinated.

[Tim Norfolk]

That's still 1 in 25, which is huge. Then again, I have met quite a few doctors who were none too bright.

[Bill Vanek]

On Sep 18, 2021, BillB wrote
(in article<98ce78a4-449f-4cd3...@googlegroups.com>):

*”Says”*

[Bill Vanek]

On Sep 18, 2021, Tim Norfolk wrote
(in article<554be650-fc18-4605...@googlegroups.com>):

I ran into one that didn’t understand that a list of requirements, each
followed by “or", did not mean that all requirements had to be met. That
was my first - and last - visit with him.

[Bill Vanek]

On Sep 17, 2021, Dutch wrote
(in article <si3d40$6pi$1...@dont-email.me>):

Fucking back that up. You can’t.

> and they
> are probably Republicans,

Another outburst you can’t back up.

> because 95% of Democrats are either vaccinated
> or committed to it.

Or say they are. And “committed to it”. Lol. ‘I’m going to get it.
Honest”.

> In other words, by being vaccinated you are acting
> with the common sense of a Democrat, congratulations.
>
> > And how am I making it political? That was done
> > long ago by others.
>
> It's something that has to be sustained, you could stop, you know
> better, but you don't care about doing the right thing.

When will the Dems stop the politics?

> > > And yes, there is vaccine
> > > reluctance across the political spectrum but it is the right wing media
> > > that is making it political. Telling people to get it is not a political
> > > statement, telling them to doubt it usually is. Think about it, if the
> > > US beats Covid, Biden will get credit. Do you think the right wants
> > > that? I know that sounds ghoulish, but if the shoe fits..
> >
> > Brain damage in all its glory. You can’t even hide it.
>
> Really? The Republican Party is fully behind a guy who is trying to end
> democracy.

And replace it with what? Communism, like the Dems? You’d think they’d
all be on the same page, eh?

> Let that sink in. The same the guy who let hundreds of
> thousands of people die for political expedience.

Broken brain. You already admitted he did everything he could to get the
vaccine to us. How many lives do you credit him with saving?