A Pandemic Expert Tells Us Why She Was So Wrong About Coronavirus

[LiberalArkie]

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, many public health experts were sure that the virus could be beaten before it had a disastrous impact: as long as testing was robust, and the systems in place functioned properly, America would pull through relatively unscathed.

They may have been right, but we’ll never know, because testing has not been robust, and the systems in place have all failed miserably.

One expert I spoke with in late February was Theresa MacPhail, a medical anthropologist, Assistant Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, and author of the book The Viral Network: A Pathology of the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic. MacPhail worked with the CDC in 2009 as a volunteer intern as part of its Global Disease & Detection unit, taking part in global conference calls on the H1N1 pandemic and seeing how the organization is structured. She was in Hong Kong during its H1N1 outbreak.

In late February, she spoke optimistically with me about America’s ability to handle the coming Covid-19 outbreak. In early March, she got sick with what she believes to be Covid-19. She reached out to me recently, insisting to go on the record again to say that she was wrong, and that she put too much faith in the CDC and America’s ability to manage the crisis.

Snip

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v748x4/a-pandemic-expert-tells-us-why-she-was-so-wrong-about-coronavirus

[crickets]

1. Had the CDC pandemic team put in place by Obama still been there,

she likely would have been right.

I am scared and enraged because there's no central authority here. I don't understand what's going on.The CDC isn't giving press briefings. They're just absent. And that could be because the administration is muzzling them. Or it could mean that there's disarray inside the CDC. And I guess all of that will come out.

[BComplex]

4. The administration has muzzled them from day one.

And gotten rid of anyone who wouldn't toe the party line.

[procon]

2. She put too much faith in expecting that Trump

would behave like other presidents and rise above himself to save the country. She underestimated his ego. She might not have thought that his lies would accelerate as he tried to avoid responsibility and fail to act. She probably never imagined that he would eliminate the very agencies that were designed to protect us from this pandemic. She didn't expect a president would play favorites when it came to doling out critical supplies that were in short supply.

Now she knows.

[patphil]

3. Putting faith in the CDC would have worked if Obama was still President.

He listened to his advisors, picked the right people to manage the agencies, and understood the needs of the people.
He knew how to lead.
Now the CDC is being crushed under the weight of Trump's incompetence.

It's a different agency now.
I have no faith in them, or any other agency under Trump's control.

[Scarsdale]

11. tRump puts

Jared in charge of everything. Jared, who flunked the test to be admitted to Harvard. Daddy had to make a large donation to ensure Jared was "intelligent enough" to be admitted. See, money does talk when you have enough of it. Sadly for the rest of us Jared is STILL not too bright. He has screwed up everything he has been put in charge of. He kept telling the orange ass the virus was nothing to be concerned about. Jared succeeded at one thing, he got his family out of debt by making under the table plans with the Saudis and Quatar. The rest of us? No dice.

[SheltieLover]

5. K&R

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Holey Shit on a cracker.

Not even the experts and authorities expected what would happened when Trump does what Trump does, which is to hog tie public institutions and try to talk around the problems he creates for us.

[barbtries]

7. the CDC has been co-opted

by the keystone kops. it's very sad.

[LakeVermilion]

8. Even if (cause its questionable) the responsibilities were reassigned,

they chased the professionals with experience out. They brought in a new (fewer people) team and started over. We haven't heard anything from the new group, have we?

[pat_k]

9. The point in should could have been right, but for the lost first seven weeks.

Perhaps it could not have been contained, no matter how early we had responded, but we'll never know because of the DT admin's obstruction and incompetence.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213199039

[Rollo]

10. It's the difference between being proactive and reactionary...

[stopdiggin]

12. It was the TESTING .. and moreover .. the TESTING

and then, somehow convincing people that things might be OK without .. the testing.

(of course the "nothing worse than the flu" and "warm weather comes around .. magically disappears" crapola didn't help any either.)

But from an epidemiological standpoint .. it was the testing.

[Blue_true]

13. I was one of those people that felt we would handle the virus without a lot

of disruption. I was wholly uninformed about how thoroughly Trump has weakened our national institutes whose job it is to respond to and corrall nationwide medical epidemics. I looked at what was happening in China and literally thought "what the hell is wrong with those people, they have excellent intellectual capability, what is wrong". I attributed their issues to their healthcare system being a third world system for a first world country, how wrong I was.