Coronavirus in DFW - News & Discussion (Dallas: percentage, free)

[CDContribuitor]

What is your take on Dr. Fauci? He is considered to be the top epidemiologist in the world and offers guidance to all the epidemiologists in the world. Given that he has been the Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, I would like to understand how you see him fare in preparing us for this pandemic?

Originally Posted by Katana49

I said this from the beginning. The handling of this pandemic has been nothing short of a complete and unmitigated failure. It's embarrassing how a 1st world country like ours has failed its citizens, and the TRUMP administration deserves a huge helping of the blame. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!

[CDContribuitor]

It is interesting to see Sweden almost eliminating this virus, despite taking a completely different approach (no shutdown, relatively milder social distancing measures) to handling it.

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by CDContribuitor

What is your take on Dr. Fauci? He is considered to be the top epidemiologist in the world and offers guidance to all the epidemiologists in the world. Given that he has been the Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, I would like to understand how you see him fare in preparing us for this pandemic?

I think Dr. Fauci's hands have been tied almost since day 1 as his guidance and advice was continually downplayed by the Trump administration.



I think he probably made a decision to speak out as much as he could while still keeping his job, knowing that if he went directly against Trump, he'd be out of a job and then we'd probably get Jared Kushner as the Director and we'd probably all be dead by now.


I do think he bears quite a bit of blame for not pushing masks as hard as he could early on, but the fact of the matter is that the entire country was completely unprepared in March when this thing started to take off. He doesn't control production, he can't make any proclamations to produce masks, and he went along with a narrative that only medical staff needed them. That was a choice made by a production reality that we didn't even have enough masks for them, but the end result was that we still have a significant number of fools disregarding wearing masks even though pretty much all politicians are on board with that now.

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Wittgenstein's Ghost

This is a terrible opinion. If we have genuine scarcity, those resources should go to the people who are both vital for treating this virus and are exposed to the largest risks. I honestly can't believe this is your take on this.

The fact that scarcity existed with masks is a real problem, but given that scarcity, ensuring healthcare workers had them was the right thing to do.

I'll point out that I had improperly quoted someone else with this line.


My own point is that if Fauci had told the truth he knew from the beginning--that everyone needed masks--it would have spurred increased production by increased production of masks.


This country still has the industrial capability to make all the N-95 masks necessary, but not when the experts continue to say there is no market for them to do so. They don't understand how it works.

[CDContribuitor]

I was talking about his actions or lack of it, leading to the pandemic. I personally think it was his prime responsibility to lead and prepare us for this pandemic, given that he has been around for more than 30 years - aspects of testing infrastructure, protocols to handle hospital capacity, data sharing and collaboration, etc. were executed since March with no prior plans in place. Instead of leading, I think he has been reacting.

As late as February 17 (1 month prior to nation-wide shutdowns), his message was "Risk of coronavirus in US is miniscule".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ds/4787209002/

Originally Posted by Katana49

I think Dr. Fauci's hands have been tied almost since day 1 as his guidance and advice was continually downplayed by the Trump administration.



I think he probably made a decision to speak out as much as he could while still keeping his job, knowing that if he went directly against Trump, he'd be out of a job and then we'd probably get Jared Kushner as the Director and we'd probably all be dead by now.


I do think he bears quite a bit of blame for not pushing masks as hard as he could early on, but the fact of the matter is that the entire country was completely unprepared in March when this thing started to take off. He doesn't control production, he can't make any proclamations to produce masks, and he went along with a narrative that only medical staff needed them. That was a choice made by a production reality that we didn't even have enough masks for them, but the end result was that we still have a significant number of fools disregarding wearing masks even though pretty much all politicians are on board with that now.

[Ralph_Kirk]

Originally Posted by Katana49

I think Dr. Fauci's hands have been tied almost since day 1 as his guidance and advice was continually downplayed by the Trump administration.



I think he probably made a decision to speak out as much as he could while still keeping his job, knowing that if he went directly against Trump, he'd be out of a job and then we'd probably get Jared Kushner as the Director and we'd probably all be dead by now.


I do think he bears quite a bit of blame for not pushing masks as hard as he could early on, but the fact of the matter is that the entire country was completely unprepared in March when this thing started to take off. He doesn't control production, he can't make any proclamations to produce masks, and he went along with a narrative that only medical staff needed them. That was a choice made by a production reality that we didn't even have enough masks for them, but the end result was that we still have a significant number of fools disregarding wearing masks even though pretty much all politicians are on board with that now.

The nation could never have had enough masks stockpiled for the nation to work within a contagion. Ideally, the nation needs about 50,000,000 N-95 masks per day, and would need them for the 12-18 months a new vaccine would be known to require.


If anyone had actually spent 10 minutes making calculations on a napkin, they could have figured that out. That requirement could never have been stockpiled.


But the nation could (and still can) ramp up production by converting factory spaces to mask production, doing much the same thing we did in WWII, when we had clock makers producing bomb sights.


That, however, requires a plan and it certainly required medical experts to think beyond their own needs to the overall need of the nation to work within a contagion. How the heck did they think they'd get their own masks produced if everyone was locked down?

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by Ralph_Kirk

The nation could never have had enough masks stockpiled for the nation to work within a contagion. Ideally, the nation needs about 50,000,000 N-95 masks per day, and would need them for the 12-18 months a new vaccine would be known to require.


If anyone had actually spent 10 minutes making calculations on a napkin, they could have figured that out. That requirement could never have been stockpiled.

Correct. But in the beginning, we didn't need to have a stockpile for the nation. We needed enough for places like New York and California, where international travel wasn't shut down quick enough. We needed better contact tracing from the start to identify and isolate those exposed. We didn't do any of that. If we had, the amount of masks needed to contain the pandemic go down drastically, and buy us more time to produce more.


We knew China had this in December. We could have been producing masks for months before there was a real need for them here.

[Katana49]

Originally Posted by CDContribuitor

I was talking about his actions or lack of it, leading to the pandemic. I personally think it was his prime responsibility to lead and prepare us for this pandemic, given that he has been around for more than 30 years - aspects of testing infrastructure, protocols to handle hospital capacity, data sharing and collaboration, etc. were executed since March with no prior plans in place. Instead of leading, I think he has been reacting.

As late as February 17 (1 month prior to nation-wide shutdowns), his message was "Risk of coronavirus in US is miniscule".

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ds/4787209002/

That's true, but he's not in a position to lead. In an ideal world he'd be working WITH the executive branch and coordinating a response, not having to correct the fallacies coming out of Trump's mouth every single time he reaches the podium. What do you do when you're the guy with the best data and understanding of the pandemic but your boss thinks it's a Democrat hoax that is simply going to go away?



Could he have done better? Sure. Would he still be the Director right now if he had pushed harder and fought against the Trump administrations narrative? Probably not.

[Mr. Clutch]

[mod cut]

Originally Posted by Katana49

Correct. But in the beginning, we didn't need to have a stockpile for the nation. We needed enough for places like New York and California, where international travel wasn't shut down quick enough. We needed better contact tracing from the start to identify and isolate those exposed. We didn't do any of that. If we had, the amount of masks needed to contain the pandemic go down drastically, and buy us more time to produce more.


We knew China had this in December. We could have been producing masks for months before there was a real need for them here.

Absolutely. Instead of focusing on producing masks and tests early on, they did nothing for weeks, and then when the virus started spreading here, they started focusing on ventilators instead. Just terrible, slow, and reactive decision-making. And I remember at the time thinking "why the hell are they not doing what the Asian countries that get all of these random outbreaks do?!"

[mastershake575]

Originally Posted by CHRockwell

LOL that you think this is his fault. Have to laugh at all the people still overreacting from this.

It's a little of both. He's clearly being setup and things are being exageratted to tank his image but at the same time he did spent 7 weeks calling it a fake chinese hoax and downplayed the entire situation when advisors where telling him otherwise.

Like most things in life it's not A or B

Originally Posted by CDContribuitor

Thank you for that insight. I hope we come up with some legislation by which nurses get paid better than what they are getting paid today.

Pay would be good but my point was they would prefer not to be used as political tools or scapegoats (aka Ebola 2014 Dallas). They don't care about pay, they care that misleading stats like "bed percentage" or "positivity rate" are being used to mislead the public and to make there jobs worst all to boost the ego/public perception of politicians