Disease Control and Prevention: Pandemic Edition

Trump sidelined the CDC once he realized they had dropped the ball on testing. He saw that the CDC had been overrun by bureaucrats, and was spending its budget on things like gun control, transgender rights, and social justice initiatives instead of curing actual diseases.

It's an unknown virus. The CDC, NIH and PHS are not G-d nor are they omniscient. Neither is Fauci. All they can do is observe, speculate and learn for the future. If it feels like no one knows what the fuck they are doing, it's because they don't. Hysteria and finger-pointing will not change that reality.

R2 The finger should be pointed at the CDC right now. Not to make accusations, but to say, “Hey, you. You exist to combat infectious diseases. Tell us how to fight this.” It is literally the whole reason CDC exists.

R3 They don't know how to fight THIS. They're learning as they go along. So finger-pointing at the CDC might satisfy your blame jones, but it's useless under the current situation.

R4 It’s not about blame. It’s about getting information from those who are specifically charged with this specific work. Specifically.

Dr. Fauci is a great scientist as far as I can tell. But he is a research scientist and not an epidemiologist or a disease-control expert. There’s a difference between lab research and disease control within a population.

CDC should be best positioned to know how to fight THIS. Because this is an infectious disease. A communicable human disease. Which, again, is what they exist to prevent the spread of. NIH does not exist for that reason. The White House does not exist for that reason. The CDC exists *solely* for that reason. CDC was the high-profile, front-facing agency when it came to Zika, Ebola, HIV and every other infectious disease. I don’t understand why you’re accusing me of misplacing blame when I am asking where the CDC is because the CDC is our branch of government that exists specifically to control this and to guide us through it.

R5 You want information from people who don't have any information. It's a NEW virus. You can't go by what other viruses have done because viruses are individual. I'm sure it's frightening to contemplate that those whose job it is to provide information haven't a fucking clue in hell and can't provide information, other than to speculate. But that's reality for now.

As far as other viruses, how long did it take before they had a handle on HIV? Years? You expect? demand? far too much from people who will only be able to knowledgeably inform in hindsight.

R6 Zika was a NEW virus. CDC petitioned Obama for a billion dollars in emergency funding to combat it, and he secured that funding from Congress. Because that is what CDC exists to do. NIH did not do this. The White House did not take over public health guidance. CDC did because it is what CDC does.

Ebola was a NEW virus. CDC jumped on it.

HIV was a NEW virus. Even though CDC failed with HIV in the 80s, the agency did petition Reagan hard to address it. He would not. But they at least tried. Read And The Band Played On; you’ll find that Randy Shilts documented efforts by CDC personnel to address it being stonewalled by the White House and Congress because Reagan did not want to discuss anything having to do with gay sex.

CDC has a whole division dedicated to new, emerging and zoonotic diseases. They don’t just not do their job of disease control and prevention because a disease is new. That doesn’t even make sense.

EBOLA and Zika had both been dicking around Africa for decades before they hit the US. That's NOT new. By the time they hit the US, there was already a enough medical information available for the CDC to respond knowledgeably.

Wuflu is exactly 2 months old, which is most certainly NOT enough time to gather definitive medical information about the virus. Ergo, THAT'S why everyone doesn't know jack shit and is speculating.

OK R8 well I do hope CDC employees are enjoying their downtime and learning a lot from the NIAID director and the Bible-thumping magically thinking VP who is carrying out their agency’s charge.

I don’t trust anything coming from the federal government right now. Fauci is somewhat credible, but Scarf Lady seems like a people-pleaser who’ll say whatever Trump and Pence want her to.

Right now, I’m listening to Governor Cuomo and taking it with a grain of salt.

^^ and as someone else here suggested, watching what South Korea is doing.

r8, the virus was announced to the world at the end of December. Where are you getting that it is 2 months old?

R12 Oh, my mistake, it's THREE months old. Still not enough time to gather definition information about a new virus.

And just to remind you gentlemen who were not around when HIV hit, it took YEARS of people with HIV/AIDS being isolated in hospital rooms, medicos in masks/gloves, clothes and bedding boiled, no touching and lots and lots of ostracism based on ignorance and fear until enough medical knowledge was gathered and people understood how the HIV virus was transmitted.

Even if this particular virus were only known to science for two months, which is false, all scientists keep reminding us that it is a novel (new) coronavirus, but that coronaviruses are common and they are well understood. The problem with this one is that it is newly introduced to the human species and we don’t have any antibodies spread among the population to act as a buffer for contagion yet.

CDC scientists understand contagion. They understand coronaviruses generally. They are familiar with zoonotic pathogens—infectious agents that “jump” from non-human animals to human animals. They understand human immunity as well as most NIH scientists.

This is the CDC’s arena. And CDC scientists are sitting on the sidelines watching others battle.

Ok, I work with CDC on CDC- grant funded HIV and STD projects. Everyone in the CDC National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention has been detailed to coronavirus since February. All grant recipients including state and local health departments and NGO programs received a broadly worded letter that during this crisis, it’s fully expected that we devote our time and energy to coronavirus prevention and testing. Our entire workforce has been re-organized for this response. HIV outreach workers have become COVID outreach workers. Epidemiologists are still in the process of doing case ascertainment, contact tracing where possible and referrals. Others are developing curriculum which is changing rapidly for training. The entire HIV and STD workforce has basically been re-assigned to coronavirus prevention. And that just what I know of. I’m sure other programs outside of HIV and STD are working on this as well.

As are the VA, HRSA, the IHS, and all other entities of the HHS you didn’t mention.

R15 Why does CDC have no public voice right now? It looks from the outside as if CDC is doing nothing except *considering* recommending that people wear masks.

R16, Robert Redfield, the head of CDC is in the coronavirus task force and is at most of those briefings with Fauci and Birx.

R17 Is he?

He’s on the right. If this was 2015 and Tom Frieden was CDC head, you’d remember him better. He was a better leader.

Tom Frieden was a great leader indeed.

OMG-I didn’t know about that, r20. Fuuccck.