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Trump barred a top health expert from speaking freely about the coronavirus. It's one of many ways the administration has muzzled scientists.
awoodward@businessinsider.com (Aylin Woodward)
Business InsiderFebruary 28, 2020, 5:48 PM EST
US president Donald Trump looks on as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health Anthony Fauci speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020.
US president Donald Trump looks on as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health Anthony Fauci speaks during a news conference on the COVID-19 outbreak at the White House on February 26, 2020.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty

The Trump administration reportedly barred Anthony Fauci, one of the US' top experts on infectious disease, from speaking publicly about the coronavirus without approval.

Fauci has tackled the AIDS and Ebola epidemics. He's been director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

Some of Fauci's statements about the coronavirus have been at odds with claims from President Trump, who has said the illness will disappear.

It's not first time the Trump administration has muzzled scientific experts.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Anthony Fauci has been the director of the US' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for 36 years. He guided the US through the AIDS and Ebola epidemics, and is now helping to lead the response to the new coronavirus outbreak.

But the Trump administration has reportedly barred him from speaking about the virus without clearance from the White House, according to The New York Times.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 3,000 people and infected 83,800. It has spread from China to more than 55 other countries.

Although Trump said the US is "rapidly developing a vaccine" for the coronavirus and "will essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner," Fauci has estimated that we're between a year and a year-and-a-half away from a vaccine. Trump also expressed optimism that COVID-19 — the disease the virus causes — will disappear, but Fauci has suggested the world is on the brink of a pandemic.

In an apparent bid to exert more control over the messaging around this public-health crisis, The Times reported, the administration instructed Fauci "not to say anything else without clearance." A NIAID spokesperson told Business Insider that "this is not true," however.

Still, the Trump administration has a history of muzzling scientific experts. In the last four years, the White House has prevented meteorologists from discussing hurricane forecasts, Health and Homeland Security staff from commenting on gun violence after mass shootings, and US Geological Survey scientists from mentioning climate change.

Here are some examples of the Trump administration's attacks on science, which have often come in the midst of public crises.

As Hurricane Dorian barreled through the Caribbean on September 1, Trump incorrectly tweeted that the storm would hit Alabama. He later displayed a forecast map that had been doctored with a sharpie to include Alabama — information at odds with National Weather Service's prediction.



After National Weather Service forecasters took to social media to correct Trump's mistake, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued a memo that disavowed the statements disputing the president's claims.

NOAA then released a statement supporting Trump's claims and refuting its own previous forecasts.

That dramatic reversal, according to The New York Times, came about because White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross to ensure that NWS forecasters didn't contradict the president. Ross threatened to fire top NOAA officials if they didn't tamp down on the forecasters' comments.



Following back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, last year, staff at the Department of Health and Human Services were told to get approval before posting anything on social media related to mental health, violence, or mass shootings.




Trump linked gun violence to mental illness at the time: "Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun," he said.

But research suggests Trump's comment was bogus. Mental-health issues are not predictive of violent outbursts: Although as many as one in five people in the US experience mental illness every year, people with serious mental-health problems account for just 3% of all violent crime.

In November, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule that would require scientists to make their data public to the agency before their findings could be used in EPA policy decisions about public

That would cripple clean air and water regulations, CNN reported, because those public-health policies are rooted in studies that utilize confidential health records or disclosures.

According to The New York Times, the proposal would also retroactively halt the further use of research already referenced by the EPA if scientists didn't make that data public (including confidential medical records).



When a Department of Agriculture scientist's 2018 research revealed that rising carbon emissions will make rice less nutritious, the Trump administration questioned the findings then tried to minimize media

The USDA not send out a press release about the research, and they also declined to give the researcher, Lewis Ziska, permission to do media interviews.

Ziska had worked at the USDA for two decades, but he left his post in 2019, according to Politico.

In March 2019, US Geological Survey research found that sea-level rise and flooding will impact 600,000 Californians and cause $150 billion in property damages by 2100. But the accompanying press release downplayed that information.

The press release accompanying the study didn't include the expected costs of rising sea levels at all.

"An earlier draft of the news release, written by researchers, was sanitized by Trump administration officials, who removed references to the dire effects of climate change after delaying its release for several months, according to three federal officials who saw it," E&E News reporter Scott Waldman, who broke the news, wrote.

One anonymous federal researcher reportedly told Waldman: "It's been made clear to us that we're not supposed to use climate change in press releases anymore. They will not be authorized."

"Climate change" isn't the only phrase the Trump administration has censored. Two years ago, the administration prohibited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using the words "vulnerable," "entitlement," "diversity," "transgender," "fetus," "evidence-based," and "science-based" in 2018 budget documents.



Tami Chappell/Reuters

According to the Washington Post, CDC staff was told to use language like "science in consideration with community standards and wishes," in lieu of "science-based."



In 2017, Department of Interior officials deleted sections of a letter detailing how President Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico would harm wildlife.


The letter came from scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service and was sent to the Customs and Border Protection.

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, the letter brought up scientifically valid concerns about the potential impact of the border wall on endangered species that live along the border.

The National Park Service also muzzled employees last year. The acting deputy director of the Park Service, David Vela, told workers last summer that they had to check in with their supervisors in the Capitol before commenting to other federal agencies on issues related to gas and oil drilling.

Critics of the memo said it was an effort to prevent park staff from voicing opposition to development and drilling on federal public lands.

First death on US soil from Coronavirus in Seattle. Apparently the victim was only 32 years old but there's no concrete information on the age.

Let’s see the response from the individual who bungled a HIV outbreak in Indiana.

It took out a 32 year old? I wonder if there were other health issues. Wow.

Unverified reports on the age. My apologies.

J/C

Some helpful links and information for all on Coronavirus

Updated Live Data Site
-Contains data on cases, recoveries, death rate by age/gender, etc. Helpful if you're feeling scared. Nice graphs and charts.

Mike Pence's Bungling of HIV Outbreak in Indiana.
Let's hope he's learned from that lesson. It's concerning he's running point.

How to prevent Coronavirus-CDC

WHO Guidelines for Coronavirus

White House to control information flow on U.S. Coronavirus topics

Lead US Doctor told not to appear on Sunday shows to talk about Coronavirus

President currently giving a press conference that was supposed to be about Coronavirus, but he's started off with the Afghanistan agreement.

He looks a bit rough today.

Edit:

50 year old patient passed away.

Trump sounds like he's crashing.

Pence wants to assure us of millions of prayers. First thing he talked about when addressing victims.

Those sure stopped that HIV outbreak in Indiana, right?

smfh

j/c

Four new coronavirus cases in Pacific Northwest suggest community spread of the disease

https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/28/california-oregon-coronavirus-case-community-spread/

Probably started to spread because of the whistleblower's concerns.

Honest question: Are you talking about Scott County, Indiana? I'm reading about that. It started 2 or 3 years before Pence was governor. https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-me...reak-to-spread/

Or is there something else I'm missing?

It is, he inherited the problem. It took him a year to "pray on it" before he did anything.

Link

My good friend Natalie just got back from being in Portland on a business trip. She asked if I wanted to go have a few drinks with her... I told her if she orders a Corona I'm running the hell out of the bar.

So, this problem he inherited (granted, from a republican governor. Want to make that clear as I DO believe your big issue is the party he's from), but, this HIV epidemic where in 215 i.v. drug users were infected with HIV over 5 years, in a population of some 24,000 people because the state didn't supply them free needles.............

Do I have that correct so far? And Pence is to blame for it? Is that correct? If so, do you blame Obama for opiode abuse and deaths when he was president? If not, please explain why? I have a feeling if you leave politics out of it.........well, I'll wait for you to explain about the HIV outbreak of 215 people....

a soldiers wife in south korea was just confirmed to have it.

soldiers should be fine. we get pumped with so many vaccinations and shots that we're not even sure they gave us what they told us we were getting.

Its always a good thing to have lobbyists running government departments...pretty swampy



Health Secretary Alex Azar Refuses To Guarantee Coronavirus Vaccine Would Be Affordable For All
Isabel Togoh
Isabel TogohForbes Staff




HHS Secretary Alex Azar Testifies Before House Appropriations Committee
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar testifies before the House Appropriations ... [+] GETTY IMAGES
Topline: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has angered Democrats after suggesting that a coronavirus vaccine might not be affordable for all Americans and that the Trump administration could not cap its price because of the need for private sector investment in Covid-19 research.

Azar made the statement to Congress at a budget hearing on Wednesday, after requesting $136 million from Congress to boost government efforts in fighting the outbreak of the pneumonia-like virus.
Questioning him was Representative Jan Schakowsky (D–Ill.), who asked: “You’re saying that [a vaccine] will, for sure, be affordable for anyone who needs it?”
Azar replied: “We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can’t control that price because we need the private sector to invest. . . . Price controls won’t get us there.”

It comes after Azar this week asked Congress to approve Trump’s demand for $2.5 billion in funding to fight the disease, which he suggested would go toward developing vaccines and supporting local government, among other measures.
Today In: Business
Additional fact: Azar, appointed HHS secretary in January, is a former lobbyist for pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly.

Chief critics: The Center of American Progress called Azar’s comments “shameful.”


“This is a global health crisis, and everyone should have the right to medication that will help protect them from this virus,” the public policy organization tweeted.

Schakowsky later tweeted: “I just gave [Azar] THREE chances to assure us that any #coronavirus vaccines or treatments developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars will be affordable and accessible to everyone and he flat out refused to do so. He’s giving #BigPharma a blank check to monopolize them instead.”


Other Democrats, including Senator Patty Murray (D–Wash.), piled on. Murray said: “A vaccine that’s just for rich people won’t do much to protect public health.”


Key background: There are now at least 60 coronavirus cases in the U.S., including one of unknown origin. On Monday, President Donald Trump asked Congress for $2.5 billion in funding to fight the virus, a request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi called “anemic.” Critics have zeroed in on the Trump administration this week after the President appeared to downplay the disease, and attacked broadcasters for making the coronavirus “look as bad a possible” and rattling markets. Trump officially appointed Vice President Mike Pence to lead the government’s fight against coronavirus on Wednesday, a move which was met with criticism directed at Pence’s previous record dealing with public health issues, including when he voted to cut Planned Parenthood funding and later oversaw an HIV outbreak when he was governor of Indiana, which was linked to the closure of a vital PP testing site.

Global efforts to develop a vaccine against the pneumonia-like illness are being coordinated by the World Health Organization, but it will take months to yield results. More than 80,000 people across 47 countries have been infected with Covid-19, while around 2,800 have died in the outbreak that is thought to have originated in Wuhan, China.

Tangent: A Miami man, Osmel Martinez Azcue, who returned from a work trip to China recently could owe thousands, after he went to his local hospital to get a precautionary flu test. Azcue says his story highlights the prohibitive healthcare costs and how that could slow down the fight against public health crises, the Miami Herald reported.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh...l/#58a9531b490c

Only for the time he refused to help address the problem. His predecessor is responsible for the time he didn't address the problem.

This should be in the Pollution ... err ... Politics forum.

As I said yesterday...

Knowing an individual’s lack of ethos, especially when he made statements that smoking doesn’t kill, to spearhead a committee that wishes to save American lives is important.

Would you want a career lawyer telling you how to draft football players? I think much of the board was against that, so I’m not certain why having a man responsible for an HIV epidemic leading the fight to stop another deadly virus is suddenly “OFF LIMITS!!!”

I will not give anyone a rubber stamp to someone who lacks qualifications. And if this very board is too uncomfortable with criticism to the response to thwart the spread of a virus, well...it’s obvious the slant of where this place falls.

If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?

If you all want to have a discussion on COVID-19 in the other forum, leave the political crap and barbs out of it. Otherwise, it all goes in here.

Interesting statement here, and false, really. Pence wasn't 'responsible" for anything. And this "epidemic" you speak of was 215 i.v. drug users - addicts - over 5 years. You want responsibility?

It seems like some people want the gov't. to be responsible for everything......of course, depending on political party. I've got $100 that says if pence were a democrat, this would never even be brought up.

Just like some on here are saying the corona virus is Trumps fault.........please. Take the politics out of posts and go with real life. You, and others, don't like trump, and pence. Fine. 215 i.v. drug users came down with HIV? And you blame pence, because it started before him, but he's responsible ?????

Is Obama responsible for all the opiode deaths in this country under his administration?

There is not doubt in my mind the virus came of of a Bio facility in China.


Now it is spreading around the world and no stopping it at this point. If we can't figure it out soon, 50% of the world dies. Maybe more....


Th Dens planned it. Most deaths will be young children. They can't vote, and older people who are mostly Republican.

:coo coo for coco puffs:

Going to use this a fuel, for leadership that scaled down the CDC and EPA,

Your leader was a puppet at best. A bad one at that.

Crucify this mo

The virus came from food markets in Asia that store dead bats above mystery meat sticks bugs and other insects they sell for snacks to the public.

Under trump’s watch. Yet the dems are blamed. Tsk tsk ..that’s how deplorable the trump era is. Pfft.

Maybe someday we’ll take a look back and check on how the Obama Admin handled Ebola and comparing it to trump’s czar selection of pence and their response to the Corona Virus. If we are still here.

Coronavirus rumors and chaos in Alabama point to big problems as U.S. seeks to contain virus
Todd C. Frankel, The Washington Post Published 12:35 pm EST, Sunday, March 1, 2020



A dormitory, front center, in Anniston, Ala., where the federal government intended to house coronavirus patients. Photo: Photo For The Washington Post By Elijah Nouvelage / Elijah Nouvelage
Photo: Photo For The Washington Post By Elijah Nouvelage
IMAGE 1 OF 5
A dormitory, front center, in Anniston, Ala., where the federal government intended to house coronavirus patients.
ANNISTON, Ala. - Not long before local leaders decided, in the words of one of them, that federal health officials "didn't know what they were doing" with their plan to quarantine novel coronavirus patients in town, a doctor here set out in a biohazard suit to stage a one-man protest along the highway with a sign. "The virus has arrived. Are you ready?" it asked.

The town didn't think it was. Residents already were unnerved by strange stories posted on Facebook and shared via text messages about helicopters secretly flying in sick patients, that the virus was grown in a Chinese lab, that someone - either the media or the government - was lying to them about what was really going on.

The quarantine plan hastily hatched by the federal Department of Health and Human Services was soon scrapped by President Donald Trump, who faced intense pushback from Alabama's congressional delegation, led by Republican Rep. Mike Rogers. Americans evacuated after falling ill aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan would not be coming to Anniston, a town of 22,000 people in north-central Alabama, after all. They would remain in the same Texas and California sites where they were taken after leaving the cruise ship.

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What happened here over the pastweek illustrates how poor planning by federal health officials and a rumor mill fueled by social media, polarized politics and a lack of clear communication can undermine public confidence in the response to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease named covid-19. The rapidly spreading virus has rattled economies worldwide in recent weeks and caused the deaths of more than 2,900 people, mostly in China.


The panic and problems that burned through Anniston also provided a preview of what could unfold in other communities, as the spread of the virus is considered by health experts to be inevitable.

"Their little plan sketched out in D.C. was not thought out," said Michael Barton, director of the emergency management agency in Calhoun County, where Anniston is located.


As local officials learned more, Barton added, "We knew then -"

"We were in trouble," said Tim Hodges, chairman of the county commission.

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In Anniston, local leaders were stunned to discover serious problems with the federal government's plan for dealing with patients infected with the virus - starting with how the patients would get to Alabama, according to interviews with county and city officials, along with business leaders who dealt with the federal response.


"I was shocked," Anniston Mayor Jack Draper said. "I was shocked by the lack of planning. I was shocked by the manner in which it was presented to us."

Two HHS officials - Darcie Johnston, director of intergovernmental affairs, and Kevin Yeskey, principal deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response - said in a Feb. 23 meeting with local officials that the patients would be flown from California to the Fort McClellan Army Airfield in Anniston, according to multiple local officials.

The airfield was closed when the Army base was shuttered in 1999. Local officials said they told the HHS officials during the meeting the runway was in bad shape.

"The more we talked," Hodges said, "the more holes we found."

The HHS plan also called for housing coronavirus patients at the Center for Domestic Preparedness, a FEMA facility on the old Army base and one of several redevelopment projects at the sprawling outpost.

The center has several brick dormitory buildings - behind tall black fencing - where federal officials planned for the patients to live. Federal officials even picked out the building they wanted to use for the first arrivals: Dorm No. 28, local officials said. A team of federal health workers would care for the patients and U.S. marshals would keep them from leaving the quarantine, local officials said they were told.

The dorms normally house emergency responders from around the country.

But the center doesn't have any special capabilities for handling infectious diseases, local officials said. The center is used for training. It has isolation hospital rooms - located in a former Army hospital building - but they are mostly just props, with fake equipment and light switches that exist only as paint on walls.

Meanwhile, federal officials never contacted the town's hospital, Regional Medical Center, about handling covid-19 patients, said Louis Bass, the hospital's chief executive.

Yet HHS officials said in a statement released to the public Feb. 22 that patients who become seriously ill would be sent to "pre-identified hospitals for medical care."

"We were surprised," Bass said.

The hospital does have eight negative-pressure isolation rooms, but patients with serious complications would need to be sent to a larger institution, such as Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, 90 miles away, Bass said.

Emory University Hospital did not respond to a question about whether it was told about the HHS plan.

A federal contract for a local ambulance service was secured at the last moment, after HHS had already issued a statement about its plan for Anniston. Details on how to handle other tasks - including patients' laundry and food - seemed unfinished.

The preparations for bringing patients to Anniston were handled partly by Caliburn International, a government contractor that previously provided emergency medical services to federal agencies, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly joined the firm based in Reston, Virginia, as a board member last year. Caliburn is the parent company of Comprehensive Health Services, which has come under scrutiny for its operation of medical services at a detention site for migrant children.

A Caliburn spokeswoman referred questions about the Anniston operations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

HHS, through its Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, responded to The Post's questions about its Anniston operations with a statement noting the office's staff members "have a long-standing relationship" with the disaster preparedness center and were familiar with its capabilities. The statement also said the federal agency "was considering the facility as a contingency location" and decided during discussions with local officials that "the site would not actually be needed."

It was Trump who finally canceled the planned quarantine in Anniston on Feb. 23, according to tweets from Rogers and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., that referred to their conversations with the president.

The news arrived as people attended an emergency meeting of the Calhoun County Commission. Cheers broke out.

"I guess in our culture today a tweet is considered official," Barton said.

Anniston has plenty of experience dealing with unwelcome threats - and learning to live with them.

It was for years home to the nation's chemical weapons stockpile, including sarin and mustard gas. Later, it was the location of a chemical weapons incinerator, where those munitions were carefully destroyed.

The town also deals with the toxic legacy of a former Monsanto plant that for decades polluted the soil and water with PCBs, which were banned in the 1970s amid health concerns. The pollution resulted in a $700 million settlement for 20,000 residents in 2003.

But the novel coronavirus posed a different kind of challenge.

Fear that the HHS plan was flawed gave new energy to already circulating rumors and wild theories about the virus.

Residents didn't know whom to believe. Trump had said without evidence that CNN and MSNBC were exaggerating the threat. Rush Limbaugh was on the radio saying it was no worse than the regular flu. Facebook posts claimed the outbreak had been foreshadowed by a 1981 Dean Koontz book. And the idea the virus could have been created in a Chinese biochemical lab was floated widely, including by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.

The whirlwind caught the attention of Michael Kline, a urologist in Anniston.

"I don't think anyone knows what's going on," he said.

So on the weekend of Feb. 22-23, Kline dressed up in a blue biohazard suit with his "the virus has arrived" sign. He stood along the highway and waved to passing vehicles. He wanted to drum up opposition to allowing infected patients in Anniston. But even the plan was abandoned, Kline said he still wasn't certain patients weren't being housed at the old Army base.

Rumors of black helicopters ferrying infected patients to the training center at night were rampant. The local Home Depot sold out of painting and sanding face masks. Hodges, the commissioner, said he heard often from worried residents. But helicopters were common in the area because of a nearby Army depot and National Guard training center. Only now they were nefarious. Other people talked about mysterious vans driving along county roads.

Hodges and Draper held emergency news conferences and meetings to try to lessen the panic. But those meetings also allowed for additional rumors to flourish during public comment periods. A commission meeting included one resident tying the coronavirus to a 1992 United Nations document about climate change.

"That's how long this has been going on," he said.

"The public is going crazy," said Bobby Foster, a business owner who spoke at the meeting and asked the commissioners to try harder to distribute accurate information.

Glen Ray, president of the local NAACP, talked about the virus at a Sunday service at Rising Star United Methodist Church on Feb. 23 to try to calm people's worries. But he was also dismayed that one of the county commissioners wore a red "Make America Great Again" hat to an emergency meeting about the virus.

"It's not about Donald Trump," Ray said later. "A virus is not going to just jump on a Democrat. So at times like this, we need to be coming together. No time for politics."

Anniston's flirtation with the dreaded virus did have one positive effect, officials said. It made them realize they need to prepare - that the virus could come without warning and they shouldn't rely on outsiders alone for expertise.

Barton, the emergency management director, helped create a county infectious disease task force. It has already had its first meeting. The focus is not solely on the coronavirus. It will handle the flu and whatever other viruses pop up in the future.

The public's interest in the virus hasn't faded, either.

Barton gave a talk Thursday to a lunchtime meeting of a civic organization, the Exchange Club. It had been planned months ago but he decided to talk about the aborted plan to bring infected patients to town.

People peppered Barton with questions about why federal health officials had ever considered the disaster training facility and how much emergency food they should keep at home. They wanted to know how to avoid getting sick.

Barton suggested hand-washing and keeping a safe distance from sick people.

As he talked, a lady reached into her purse, squeezed some alcohol sanitizer on her hands and passed the bottle around the table.

- - -

The Washington Post's Emma Brown and Beth Reinhard contributed to this report.

While he and I have always disagreed on politics, he actually used to be a sane and logical thinker. Those days are gone since Trump came along.

We are all Doomed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

America is about to get a godawful lesson in why health care should never be a for-profit business

For four decades, American corporations have been caught up in a whole series of refinements that are intended to improve efficiency and productivity. Our processes are lean. Our efficiency is six-sigma. Our productivity has mysteriously run far ahead of employee compensation in a way that has made CEOs billionaires while leaving workers on food stamps.

It’s a system that maximizes profit. But it’s also a system that assumes that everything can be stripped to the bare bones; that business can make do with minimal staffing, minimal supplies, minimal alternatives. Nothing is there that makes the system in the least unprofitable. The system stands like a house of glass, waiting for something to challenge its fragility.

And in the United States, health care is just that kind of system.

Like every other system in America, we now have a super-lean, infinite-sigma healthcare system, absolutely dependent on every cog remaining in place. It’s one in which there are fewer than a million hospital beds for the entire nation; one in which many, many rural counties have no hospital at all. Because that’s the most profitable way of running the system, and that’s what happens when health care is subjected to the winnowing of the marketplace—just barely enough health care, at the highest possible prices people will tolerate without demanding a change.

It’s exactly where a nation does not want to be when encountering a health crisis. And it’s why America is, unfortunately, about to get a lesson in why there is much more to a national health system than whether you pay for it in taxes or with checks to an insurance company.

In the 1960s, astronauts used to joke about flying on a giant rocket built by a collection of contractors who submitted the lowest bids. But NASA had a safety culture then, and now, that demanded each of those components be tested and retested until its function was as near certain as possible. A spacecraft is the opposite of “lean,” with a backup, and a backup, and a backup to the backup’s backup at every possible point—and a massive staff of very smart people standing by to get creative if Murphy scores a perfect strike.

None of this is true for our healthcare system. Failure very much is an option at every clinic and hospital in America. A certain level of failure is even assumed. Building a system with redundancies and experts who were not always pushed to their absolute limits would cost more. Every intern, doctor, and nurse (especially nurse) who you ever met was overworked, because running the system on the ragged edge of failure is exactly the sweet spot. Or at least it is as far as corporations whose goal is to milk every penny from the process are concerned. In the average hospital visit, there are more people involved in billing you than in treating you.

This thinking isn’t just pervasive and accepted—it’s also actively considered a very good thing. During his press event on Wednesday afternoon, before fumbling the hot coronavirus potato into the waiting hands of Mike “Smoking is good for you” Pence, Donald Trump defended the cuts he had made to the CDC and the experts on pandemics he had dropped from the National Security Council and the epidemiologists he had flushed from his planning team. He didn’t want those people sitting around when they weren’t needed, said Trump. Besides, he claimed, you could always go and get them when they were needed. Because somewhere, somehow, there is a system that keeps vital specialists waiting in hermetically sealed containers, fresh, ready, and informed to meet the nation’s needs.

That is, it goes without saying, BS. But let me say it again. BS. The value of an expert brought in to repair a system after disaster strikes is so much less than the value of having that person on hand to plan that the old ounce of prevention being greater than pound of cure formula doesn’t begin to cover it. You cannot decide to hire some pilots after the plane has crashed.

The thing about extraordinary events is that they’re extraordinary. Planning for them will never improve profits. It will only save lives.

By treating health care like a business, Americans have already seen one of the first people who dared ask to be tested for COVID-19 get handed a bill for thousands of dollars, the primary result of which will be to dissuade other Americans from asking to be tested. Which is, right there, exactly the result that is best for insurance companies—and worst for the nation.

It’s an absolute certainty that Americans will hide their sniffles, drown their symptoms in over-the-counter drugs, and try to “tough it out” because they can’t afford health care. Besides, they have no paid sick leave, no paid child care, and no guarantee that missing a day’s work won’t mean being cast to the curb. All that “socialist” crap.

And because our whole system runs so excellently lean, American hospitals are already seeing shortages of everything from gowns to masks to painkillers, because the single-source, lowest-price vendor of those items happens to be in an area that’s already been overrun with the coronavirus. Not only have those factories on the far side of the planet been sitting idle for weeks, but what production has been available has been needed close to home.

Right now in Hubei province, Chinese healthcare workers are staggering around in exhaustion. Or, as American hospital workers call it, Thursday. Our understaffed, undersupplied, overworked facilities spend every day running at their limits. That’s what is considered normal.

The concern about dollars over people is so accepted that on Thursday the White House announced two new members of the Coronavirus Task Force—Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council chief Larry Kudlow. Though to be fair, it’s not as if they completely lack expertise. Kudlow does have long familiarity with taking nasally administered drugs from rolled $100 bills. So there’s that. And if in this version of The Stand the role of the Rat Man is to be played by Mnuchin … no one can say that this is not good casting.

Disaster is far from certain. Local and state officials can still take measures that will slow the impact of COVID. And antiviral medicines may prove effective, or maybe a vaccine will come along more quickly than expected— though, should either happen, you can assume there will be a line of Pharma Bros on hand to buy the companies involved and raise the prices to eye-watering levels. After all, holding people’s lives hostage is exactly what our healthcare system is all about.

COVID-19 is going to swing a big hammer at the glass house of American health care. All anyone can do is hope they don’t get cut in the process.

And then vote to change the damn system.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/...profit-business

I'm still going to NYC tomorrow, I am a young healthy person without a compromised immune system and I know how to wash my hands.

welp, the feds cut the rates 50 basis points. Markets got what they wanted, more crack.

smh

get this, bro.

largest fed rate cut since.....2008.