Charles P. Pierce: Why Did the Trump Administration Reject the WHO Coronavirus Test?

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a31677485/coronavirus-trump-administration-rejected-who-test/

Why Did the Trump Administration Reject the WHO Coronavirus Test?
It's the most consequential—and inexplicable—move of this crisis.
By Charles P. Pierce
Mar 16, 2020


The most consequential—and logically inexplicable—decision taken by this administration* in response to the current pandemic occurred in January, when German scientists developed the first test for COVID-19 and the World Health Organization offered the test to countries around the world and 60 countries accepted. We were not one of them. From Politico:

Why the United States declined to use the WHO test, even temporarily as a bridge until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could produce its own test, remains a perplexing question and the key to the Trump administration’s failure to provide enough tests to identify the coronavirus infections before they could be passed on, according to POLITICO interviews with dozens of viral-disease experts, former officials and some officials within the administration’s health agencies.

The slowness of the testing regimen — which, administration officials acknowledged this week, is still not producing enough tests to meet the national demand — was the first, and most sweeping, of many failures. So far there have been confirmed cases in at least 23 states, and at least 15 deaths, while the stock market plunged and an otherwise healthy economy braced for a major disruption.

Let’s guess why this happened, and let’s leave aside for the moment that Jared Kushner’s brother runs a company that’s involved in testing, because that should not be any kind of surprise. What I’m fairly convinced is also behind that decision is the administration*’s disdain for international organizations, alliances of any kind, and foreigners in general. Couple that with the Republican Party’s similar xenophobic impulses and overall dislike of any science that can’t be replicated with baking soda and Fizzies, and you’ve got a pretty good reason why help from overseas is more terrifying in many minds than viruses from overseas are. American exceptionalism now means “except us.” That’s not a good development.

[randr]

1. Follow the money

Someone was going to make a bit of profit from this move. Wanna bet they have Mara Lago membership?

[brewens]

4. Exactly. If we're testing we're using tests made here. That way Trump get to control who

makes the money. They didn't think that one through. Set your buddy up to make something you end up trying to suppress the demand for?

[Raster]

6. I think it's a bit closer to home than the fanboys and girls at Magat-A-Lardo...

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kushner-oscar-covid/

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/heres-how-the-kushner-family-is-cashing-in-on-the-coronavirus/

https://www.dcreport.org/2020/03/16/how-the-kushner-family-is-cashing-in-on-covid-19/

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/14/alphabet-invests-375-million-in-josh-kushner-founded-oscar-health.html

[Ms. Toad]

8. Snopes is a bit misleading.

Oscar (one of two marketplace insure in our area) has an exclusive relationship with the Cleveland Clinic. Guess which entity is the first in Ohio to offer widespread testing for Covid 19.

[Raster]

12. Would that be the same entity connected to the Kushner*/tRump* families...

... you know, the family that REFUSED the test kits from the World Health Organization. That family?

And frankly, I've not found Snopes to be misleading...

Oh, and this Oscar:

https://www.newsweek.com/high-deductible-health-insurance-plan-jared-kushner-affordable-care-act-1248297

A new health insurance plan offered in Ohio through the Affordable Care Act exchanges (aka. Obamacare) provides a dramatic look at the pitfalls of the high-deductible health plans often aimed at lower-income families, revealing the financial barrier to actually receiving care.

In June, New York's Oscar Health, a tech-focused insurance company co-founded by Josh Kushner—brother to President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner—announced plans to sell health insurance in expanded markets, including Florida, Arizona and Michigan, plus large metro areas in Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. While shopping for insurance coverage for himself, his wife and a 10-year-old child, Columbus-area web-comic creator Drew Fairweather, 39 and a nonsmoker, came across one of their new offerings on the exchange:


drewtoothpaste
@drewtoothpaste
Oscar Health, which is Jared Kushner's company, has entered the Ohio ACA marketplace with a $724/mo plan that literally pays for nothing until you incur $15,800 in medical expenses within a single year

**********
And what a COINCIDENCE that Oscar Health has been awarded contracts for Covid19 testing... eh?

[Greybnk48]

10. Magat-A-Lardo!!

[Raster]

11. Use it... Share it...

#MagatALardo

[uponit7771]

9. +1

[erronis]

2. "Republican Party's similar xenophobic impulses and ..."

"Republican Party’s similar xenophobic impulses and overall dislike of any science that can’t be replicated with baking soda and Fizzies"

And anything that the brilliant Obama might have supported.

And anything that doesn't line their pockets with taxpayers dollars. Untaxed.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

3. In a nutshell . . . .

[flibbitygiblets]

5. Congressional investigations should start as soon as emergency aid is addressed

Actually investigating this administration's fucking up of the responsibility to protect it's citizens LIKE BENGHAZI ON STEROIDS should be priority #3, after public aid and then arranging for us to have a way to vote in November elections NOT in person

We've got a hell of a lot of shit to overhaul.

[genxlib]

7. Serious questions will be asked

But no answers will be forthcoming. The gop has made it clear that they are above the law.