THE CDC IS AWOL

Powerline ^ | May 1,2020 | JOHN HINDERAKER

[Hojczyk]

The Centers for Disease Control has performed poorly during the COVID-19 epidemic. Its failures with regard to early testing are well documented. In addition, Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, says that CDC is failing in its traditional role as a national clearinghouse for data:

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CDC has been inexplicably absent, and Americans are suffering and dying for it. *** Want to know how many tuberculosis cases there were in the U.S. last year? Ask the CDC. Want to know about health-care-associated infections? Ask the CDC. It knows.

But ask how many Covid-19 tests have been done, and the CDC’s doesn’t have an answer. Want a daily update on how many people are getting hospitalized for Covid-19? The CDC isn’t tracking it. Want to know if social distancing is making a difference? The CDC doesn’t know.

During this pandemic, when accurate, timely, nationwide information is the lifeblood of our response, the CDC has largely disappeared.

[Hojczyk]

Want to know if social distancing is making a difference? The CDC doesn’t know.

And we are suposed to open up with social distancing?????

Disney World might never open

[oldplayer]

Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, has a huge conflict of interest in such matters as any diminution of the reputation of the CDC and its leadership, enhances his own.

Follow the money.

[Hojczyk]

Want to know if social distancing is making a difference? The CDC doesn’t know.

Does anybody know if it works????????

[Buckeye McFrog]

Spot on.

Why in the hell Trump continues to invest any faith in them is a mystery.

[Amberdawn]

Some of this cluster-blank can be attributed to O’Zero who ordered many major Federal agencies to embark on “outreach” programs to minorities and muslims instead of DOING IT’S G-Damned job!

[goodnesswins]

Wasn’t it some woman from CDC whose email got photo’d...she was telling a friend or family member to “stock up”...”something bads coming”...I want her under oath.

[CMailBag]

I believe this is Obama’s CDC.

[Amberdawn]

It’s likely that there are bunch of holdovers from his regime, some of whom should have been fired, no doubt. The CDC’s job is important and should never be compromised by political games.

[goodnesswins]

And that was @ Feb 23rd

[grey_whiskers]

This is one possibly unanticipated / unforeseen consequence of President Trump’s successful attacks on the Deep State.

As the Deep State breaks apart in chunks, the survivors are going to be fighting each other for either “safe” institutional hiding places, or fighting over the fragments being broken up, trying to establish themselves as important as new institutions and organizations are formed to replace the old, corrupt ones.

[Engraved-on-His-hands]

Having worked for more than 20 years in the private sector and more than 20 years in three different departments within the public sector, I thought that I might be able to give some insight into some things.

There is a tendency to see all public employees as lazy, corrupt, incompetent, etc. The truth, though, is that the public sector is more like a flattened bell curve compared to the private sector. Instead of the vast majority of the people being somewhere in the middle of the curve, they are distributed more toward both ends of the curve.

There is definitely a large number of lazy and incompetent employees who work in the public sector. In fact, the left end of the curve may be more over weighted than the right end, at least in some areas. It’s as if they have realized that there is no way that they could ever get hired in the private sector with their lack of work ethic, at least for anything significant and well-paying, so they settle into their comfy position where they while away the hours with little effort and little danger of getting fired.

What goes unnoticed, though, or at least less noticed, is that their jobs that they aren’t doing (or at least aren’t doing well) have to be done by somebody. This falls upon the hard-working and dedicated portion of the workforce, who now not only have to do their job but the jobs of others, also. I have seen it in three different widely different departments within the federal government in which I have worked (and done the jobs of others as well as mine).

This brings us to current news. There is a tendency to look disdainfully on the CDC. I have never worked for them, but I know a little bit about them. Like other parts of the government, there is inevitably the dead weight of less than competent and uncaring workers as well as political appointees who are either out of their league or being gifted with a cushy position. As in other parts of government, there is a higher percentage here than in the private sector, since they would likely be quickly fired in the private sector.

However, there is also the right end of the curve which, too, is disproportionately represented—those with higher ideals who not only were raised to have a good work ethic but come with talents and who want to make a difference. If you want to find the highest percentage of people like this in the CDC, and perhaps just about anywhere in the federal government, look at a portion of the CDC known as the EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service). These are front line medical people who sign up for a two-year stint to try to control the worst diseases in the most dangerous places around the globe. The extra pay that they get for this….Oh, wait. They don’t get extra pay. In fact, most usually take a 50% or greater pay cut from their private practices in order to try to make a difference. Like soldiers on the front line, they risk their lives with little fanfare. They, unlike the faceless bureaucrats, are the true definition of “public servants”.

So, if you see a spokesman for the CDC (or WHO or any other health organizations), and you wonder about their integrity, ask if they have ever served in the EIS (Epidemic Intelligence Service). The answer might shed some light, for better or for worse.

[Truth29]

Birx, fauci and big pharma seem to totally captured. him. Now he just had a press opportunity for the Gillead CEO and the emergency FDA approval for reservidir. Birx was there and given more face time. Lots of congratulations all around and no more mention of chloroquine and z pack.

[MrEdd]

The thing with the CDC is that there are a tremendous amount of Veterans trained in biological and chemical warfare who see the CDC failing to do the basics.

They have been a disaster and it would probably be easier to just start over with military personnel who have had to take this stuff seriously and totally rebuild the agency from the ground up.

[mowowie]

Yea they did a great job during Captain Trips as well..

[alternatives?]

“Instead of the vast majority of the people being somewhere in the middle of the curve, they are distributed more toward both ends of the curve.”

The ones I worry about are the James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, etc. I would prefer the lazy ones.

[Truth29]

make that remdesivir.

[alternatives?]

There was an article out a couple days ago that the CDC was warning people to distance themselves from their pets if they were sick.

[Nifster]

Has always been thus. Useless govt agency

[daniel1212]

Despite its wealth of data, it also fails to provide up to date statements. Want to know how many HIV deaths there have been since the epidemic began? The latest seems to be 1016. Want to know how many women, or males and homsoexuals have an STD? You will not find it stated, plus the data it has seems designed to obscure inconvenient facts.

But at least I can improve the formatting on its charts, by the grace of God:

Table 1. Deaths involving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), pneumonia, and influenza reported to NCHS by week ending date, United States. Week ending 2/1/2020 to 4/11/2020.*

Data as of April 17, 2020

Week ending date in which the death occurred	COVID-19 Deaths (U07.1)1	Deaths from All Causes	Percent of Expected Deaths2	Pneumonia Deaths (J12.0–J18.9)3	Deaths with Pneumonia and COVID-19 (J12.0–J18.9 and U07.1)3	Influenza Deaths (J09–J11)4	Population5
Total Deaths	13,130	582,565	92	45,019	5,902	5,228	327,167,434
2/1/2020	0	56,589	95	3,639	0	454	327,167,434
2/8/2020	0	57,114	96	3,633	0	488	327,167,434
2/15/2020	0	56,143	95	3,638	0	499	327,167,434
2/22/2020	0	55,690	96	3,491	0	516	327,167,434
2/29/2020	5	55,036	96	3,516	3	586	327,167,434
3/7/2020	20	54,476	94	3,614	11	566	327,167,434
3/14/2020	44	52,704	92	3,586	22	558	327,167,434
3/21/2020	454	52,271	92	4,005	209	479	327,167,434
3/28/2020	2,339	53,687	96	5,185	1,090	368	327,167,434
4/4/2020	5,457	52,992	95	6,549	2,620	371	327,167,434
4/11/2020	4,811	35,863	65	4,163	1,947	343	327,167,434

NOTE: Number of deaths reported in this table are the total number of deaths received and coded as of the date of analysis and do not represent all deaths that occurred in that period.

*Data during this period are incomplete because of the lag in time between when the death occurred and when the death certificate is completed, submitted to NCHS and processed for reporting purposes. This delay can range from 1 week to 8 weeks or more, depending on the jurisdiction, age, and cause of death.

¹Deaths with confirmed or presumed COVID-19, coded to ICD–10 code U07.1

²Percent of expected deaths is the number of deaths for all causes for this week in 2020 compared to the average number across the same week in 2017–2019. Previous analyses of 2015–2016 provisional data completeness have found that completeness is lower in the first few weeks following the date of death (8).

³Pneumonia death counts exclude pneumonia deaths involving influenza.

⁴Influenza death counts include deaths with pneumonia or COVID-19 also listed as a cause of death.