A Seattle lab uncovered Washington's coronavirus outbreak only after defying federal regulators

The Week ^ | Mar 11, 2020 | Peter Weber

[DannyTN]

...

State health officials joined Chu in asking the CDC and Food and Drug Administration to waive privacy rules and allow clinical tests in a research lab, citing the threat of significant loss of life. The CDC and FDA said no. "We felt like we were sitting, waiting for the pandemic to emerge," Chu told the Times. "We could help. We couldn't do anything."

They held off for a couple of weeks, but on Feb. 25, Chu and her colleagues "began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval," the Times reports. They found a positive case pretty quickly, and after discussing the ethics, they told state health officials, who confirmed the next day that a teenager who hadn't traveled abroad had COVID-19 — and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks. Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again. ...

[DannyTN]

LOL!

Right back at chu!

[griffin]

I hope this white house emergency medical meeting this morning give Trump the info he needs to start cleaving some CDC heads.

The resistance to testing in Washington appears to be a very unethical choice. I can only guess the motivations.

[RinaseaofDs]

Trust NOTHING coming from the State of Washington. Seriously. Nothing. Dr. Chu is politicizing this, of course, which is what the People’s Soviet of Washington does with everything.

Dr. Chu. Indeed.

[Paladin2]

" why couldn’t the U.S. just bought already known good test kits from Taiwan and South Korea; why did they have to re-invent the wheel here so to speak???"

I agree. It's criminal.

They could'a developed their own test in a parallel fashion.

[Texas Eagle]

Could be excuse making or fake news to make President Trump look bad but this is a golden opportunity to point out the dangers of an over-arching all-powerful federal government.

If one person has the power to affect the well-being of the entire country in a negative way, that should be reason enough to abolish that agency.

[DannyTN]

That’s what I think too.

I think the CDC was funneling the testing work to someone to make money off of it.

Don’t know that, but I suspect it.

[DannyTN]

That is a distinct possibility.

I do not know that the article is true. But it needs to be looked at.

Clearly there was a failure at the CDC with regards to testing. So this is believable.

Cuomo said in a youtube video that they didn’t need anything from the Fed but needed the CDC to not get in their way.

NY had an automated process that could process 1500 tests a day, using the CDC reactants, but the CDC wouldn’t approve it.

[null and void]

This ain’t a “Pandemic”.... It is a “Dem-Panic”! H/T BwanaNdege

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[MNJohnnie]

I see the same old shameless liars are here ignoring all fact to cling to their lying by anecdote

Real facts for those interested in Science and data not politically motivated panic mongering and lying.

121,340 total cased WORLD WIDE. 50,00 active cases 70,000 resolved case

4380 deaths. Average age of death: 80 years old

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[moehoward]

Article is short on details. While Chu is more than capable the CDC might have wanted a halt to make sure there’s some uniformity in testing protocol.

[Wuli]

“I think the CDC was funneling the testing work to someone to make money off of it.”

I think they were just being the “I’m in charge of this” arrogant controlling bureaucrats they have become accustomed to being.

Yet, they are still carted out - like Fauci - as these miraculous experts that will save us, while all the while they have been key in our slow bureaucratic response.

[sauropod]

.

[entropy12]

SO just because Flu has been around longer means we should ignore it’s devastating killing numbers and freak out about the new corona virus disease 2019 (covid-19)?

I am all for quarantine of infected covid-19 patients, I just don’t understand just shrugging shoulders about the Flu which has already killed 1000 times more than covid-19 has so far.

[bkopto]

Later that day, the CDC and FDA told Chu and her colleagues to stop testing, then partially relented, and the lab found several more cases. On Monday night, they were ordered to stop testing again.

"I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."

[RitchieAprile]

its because of the torts bar in this country.

[mo]

“......and the virus had likely been spreading undetected throughout the Seattle area for weeks”

2-3weeks, doc? Or 6-8?

What.is.the.denominator.?

Thats the entire issue. How large or how small is ALL anyone needs to know. Including the CDC.

Number of deaths is a useless number absent the denominator

[sharkhawk]

Imwaould guess South Korea and Taiwan aren’t exporting test kits because they’re using them in their own country

[shanover]

Unfortunately America still has the CDC that is essentially Obama holdovers and career statists.

[DEPcom]

“Other than this covid-19 is more contagious than everyday Flu, the Flu has already killed 100 times or more during the same time. Why there is no lockdown of people with Flu?”

Don’t be offended by the following answer.

That is a great question. My answer: the Covid-19 is just getting started and they have no idea of what the Covid-19 will do. There are Flu shots available for the public, there not Covid-19 shots. The Flu kills at 0.1 percent according to the CDC.

The data for South Korea is 0.7, 7x worse then the flu. Note: WHO was using the China numbers for 3.5%. The 0.7 from South Korea was determine with over 150,000 test done making it the best data available to go by.

Don’t be offended by the following questions.

Why did South Korea send thousands of people in mandatory home quarantine? Not done for the Flu

Why did South Korea lock down parts of a city? Not done for the Flu

Why did Italy do the lock downs across their country? Not done for the Flu

Why are different countries stopping flights from country with covid-19 outbreaks? They do not do that for the flu.

Why is the US not letting cruise ships to dock as normal instead of putting the passengers into quarantine. They do not do that for the flu.

Why are we spending $8.5 billion dollars and creating stimulus packages if it is just like a flu?

Why are some Congress demanding they go on recess because of the Covid-19?

Why did China lock down their entire country including the factories trashing their economy and the worlds economy?

Why is the DOW 30 down to 23957 if it is like a flu?

Why did New York enact a containment area and shut down schools in New Rochelle? They never did that for a flu before.

Trying to have an open mind here. Note: I do not watch ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and other American news
Can someone tell me why I am seeing all those responses to Covid-19 if is is just like a Flu?
Are those fake news generated by the Democrat News Media I am seeing online?
Is the overseas news media control by the Democrats too?

[bkopto]

Can someone tell me why I am seeing all those responses to Covid-19 if is is just like a Flu?

Because there is no vaccine and no herd immunity to it, unlike the flu.