Kansas Crimson

Today In: Socialism for Corporations:

Ghost - I don't know what you do for a living but that seems foolish. Is that supposed to reduce the risk to the employees who come in to work by 50%? Are they testing employees when they come back to work after the 2 week hiatus?

Meanwhile, I'm not thrilled that my company has 25% of the workers doing a mandatory work from home day today to TEST our system/s. Moves up to 50% tomorrow and Thursday and 100% Friday. Assuming all goes well, 100% back to work on Monday.

Ghost of dotNET past wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:58 pm Officially sent home for next two weeks. They are splitting up our staff, half on and off

Mr. Expendable

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:15 pm

Ghost of dotNET past wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:58 pm Officially sent home for next two weeks. They are splitting up our staff, half on and off

Mr. Expendable

I got 12 people under me. I took the two weeks and bounced to my couch for the conference and ncaa tourney.

Mama didn’t raise no fool

Grandma wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:15 pm Ghost - I don't know what you do for a living but that seems foolish. Is that supposed to reduce the risk to the employees who come in to work by 50%? Are they testing employees when they come back to work after the 2 week hiatus?

Meanwhile, I'm not thrilled that my company has 25% of the workers doing a mandatory work from home day today to TEST our system/s. Moves up to 50% tomorrow and Thursday and 100% Friday. Assuming all goes well, 100% back to work on Monday.

Lawyer. They split the staff. I’m still working, just from home. I live in NYC, so everyone uses public transportation already. They’re trying to just reduce amount of movement and possibility of the spread. In two weeks I go back in and the other half goes home. Rinse and repeat in two week cycles.

Feral wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:07 pm Today In: Socialism for Corporations:

I'll try to talk slowly so the site administrator can follow. This type of shit ^^^^^ is pure bullshit. It is corrupt. It is stupid. And it is EXACTLY the type of thing Trump claimed to be the solution to. He's is every bit the mobster people worried he'd be.

But that doesn't mean that every criticism of him is legitimate. And it doesn't mean that every criticism of him is helpful. Many are counterproductive at best.

Why are we not acting like South Korea? Well...for many reasons, very few having anything to do with Trump. For starters, we CAN'T, logistically or legally enforce locational quarantines. Can you even imagine how badly people would lose their shit if DHS issued an order preventing travel into or out of New England? Or California? Or the Pacific Northwest?

Second, the FDA and the CDC have been exceptionally jealous of their prerogatives and have stridently resisted attempts to decentralize the testing procedure. While South Korea was setting up 500 testing sites and the WHO was encouraging countries to use open-source German procedures to create test kits, the FDA and CDC refused to budge, insisting that the FDA MUST remain the only coronavirus diagnostic laboratory in the country and the CDC must provide the only approved test kit. FIVE WEEKS AGO, HHS declared a state of emergency and directed the FDA to issue an Emergency Use Authorization to the CDC, allowing it to ship test kits around the country. The CDC did -- and they were faulty, containing a defective reagent. Thus, those labs had to send all specimens back to the CDC, where they were placed at the back of the queue.

Although new diagnostic labs have been approved, to date, the CDC has approved ZERO test kits other than the one it created (by contrast, China has TEN different kits available). The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million to fight COVID-19, including providing at-home test kits for the Seattle area, but so far, nothing has been approved. Even the State of New York Department of Health, which has created its own testing kit, is not allowed, per the CDC, to use that kit to perform tests.

With respect to the Ezra Klein's "xenophobia" bullshit, it should be apparent to anyone who has paid even the slightest bit of attention that Ezra Klein is insane and that some sort of hard decoupling from China, particularly with respect to supply chains and ESPECIALLY with respect to pharmaceutical supply chains, is not only necessary, but inevitable. As of last week, Chinese state media has declared that the "world owes China a thank you" for stopping the disease and that the nation should/could impose export restrictions on pharmaceutical ingredients, which would lead to the United States being "plunged into the mighty sea of coronavirus." And they're right. EIGHTY PERCENT of American prescription drug ingredients are manufactured overseas, mostly in India and China. Noting this and noting that it is incredibly dangerous does NOT constitute xenophobia. But Ezra and the rest, who are currently shitting their knickers about "racists" calling it the "Wuhan coronavirus," will insist otherwise.

This is a profoundly stupid moment in a country that has become profoundly stupid. Donald Trump is a wannabe gangster. But that doesn't mean that everything bad that happens is his fault. And if you believe it is, then you're part of the problem, not the solution.

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:13 pm I'll try to talk slowly so the site administrator can follow...

As toxic as ever. Keep up the good work!

Ghost of dotNET past wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:16 pm

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:13 pm I'll try to talk slowly so the site administrator can follow...

As toxic as ever. Keep up the good work!

I missed you too.

Besides, this is straight up moronic.

pdub wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 6:13 am So DC's thing is to trash just a bit on the president but if other people do it, it's why we have a problem in the USA and why the president got elected?
Got it.

Well, I still read through the poli-bored from time to time to make sure anyone isn't outrageously unruly, ( and you most certainly are not unruly so i'm not implying that ) and it seems you put on a coat of arms to go to war for the president or at least the posters that mock the president -- who 99% of the time deserves to be mocked.

Maybe i'm wrong.

Not to say that you should stop doing it ( because i'm all for it ) but just calling it out.

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:13 pmSecond, the FDA and the CDC have been exceptionally jealous of their prerogatives and have stridently resisted attempts to decentralize the testing procedure. While South Korea was setting up 500 testing sites and the WHO was encouraging countries to use open-source German procedures to create test kits, the FDA and CDC refused to budge, insisting that the FDA MUST remain the only coronavirus diagnostic laboratory in the country and the CDC must provide the only approved test kit. FIVE WEEKS AGO, HHS declared a state of emergency and directed the FDA to issue an Emergency Use Authorization to the CDC, allowing it to ship test kits around the country. The CDC did -- and they were faulty, containing a defective reagent. Thus, those labs had to send all specimens back to the CDC, where they were placed at the back of the queue.

Although new diagnostic labs have been approved, to date, the CDC has approved ZERO test kits other than the one it created (by contrast, China has TEN different kits available). The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million to fight COVID-19, including providing at-home test kits for the Seattle area, but so far, nothing has been approved. Even the State of New York Department of Health, which has created its own testing kit, is not allowed, per the CDC, to use that kit to perform tests.

Trying to understand what you're saying--is the quoted part not an error by the executive branch?

Sorry I missed the Ezra Klein, xenophobia references. What did he say? Unfortunately we (as an industry) are more than eyeballs deep in China, and India, although the former is more intractable for raw materials. This is the reason why we can buy 500 tablets of ibuprofen for a few pennies a pop.

As someone who is directly responsible for drugs supply from preclinical phase all the way to commercial you don’t want to get me started on supply chain management and mitigation! Some of this is actually my day-job.

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:30 pm

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:13 pmSecond, the FDA and the CDC have been exceptionally jealous of their prerogatives and have stridently resisted attempts to decentralize the testing procedure. While South Korea was setting up 500 testing sites and the WHO was encouraging countries to use open-source German procedures to create test kits, the FDA and CDC refused to budge, insisting that the FDA MUST remain the only coronavirus diagnostic laboratory in the country and the CDC must provide the only approved test kit. FIVE WEEKS AGO, HHS declared a state of emergency and directed the FDA to issue an Emergency Use Authorization to the CDC, allowing it to ship test kits around the country. The CDC did -- and they were faulty, containing a defective reagent. Thus, those labs had to send all specimens back to the CDC, where they were placed at the back of the queue.

Although new diagnostic labs have been approved, to date, the CDC has approved ZERO test kits other than the one it created (by contrast, China has TEN different kits available). The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million to fight COVID-19, including providing at-home test kits for the Seattle area, but so far, nothing has been approved. Even the State of New York Department of Health, which has created its own testing kit, is not allowed, per the CDC, to use that kit to perform tests.

Trying to understand what you're saying--is the quoted part not an error by the executive branch?

You are correct (natch). And as the head of the executive branch, POTUS deserves all the political blame for the failure of executive agencies to fulfill their missions expeditiously.

But politics and real life ain't the same thing. And if we're content to say, "Stupid Trump fucked this up," then we will, without question, avoid confronting the real issues that actually caused and exacerbated the problems with the CDC and the FDA.

Ghost of dotNET past wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:42 pm

Grandma wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 2:15 pm Ghost - I don't know what you do for a living but that seems foolish. Is that supposed to reduce the risk to the employees who come in to work by 50%? Are they testing employees when they come back to work after the 2 week hiatus?

Meanwhile, I'm not thrilled that my company has 25% of the workers doing a mandatory work from home day today to TEST our system/s. Moves up to 50% tomorrow and Thursday and 100% Friday. Assuming all goes well, 100% back to work on Monday.

Lawyer. They split the staff. I’m still working, just from home. I live in NYC, so everyone uses public transportation already. They’re trying to just reduce amount of movement and possibility of the spread. In two weeks I go back in and the other half goes home. Rinse and repeat in two week cycles.

Well, best of luck to you and your co-workers.
My take is that most companies don't really know that their assumed best laid plans are probably what's not best.

Aren't the present issues with the CDC, specifically, a lack of funding and too few personnel?

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:50 pm

CrimsonNBlue wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:30 pm

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 3:13 pmSecond, the FDA and the CDC have been exceptionally jealous of their prerogatives and have stridently resisted attempts to decentralize the testing procedure. While South Korea was setting up 500 testing sites and the WHO was encouraging countries to use open-source German procedures to create test kits, the FDA and CDC refused to budge, insisting that the FDA MUST remain the only coronavirus diagnostic laboratory in the country and the CDC must provide the only approved test kit. FIVE WEEKS AGO, HHS declared a state of emergency and directed the FDA to issue an Emergency Use Authorization to the CDC, allowing it to ship test kits around the country. The CDC did -- and they were faulty, containing a defective reagent. Thus, those labs had to send all specimens back to the CDC, where they were placed at the back of the queue.

Although new diagnostic labs have been approved, to date, the CDC has approved ZERO test kits other than the one it created (by contrast, China has TEN different kits available). The Gates Foundation has pledged $100 million to fight COVID-19, including providing at-home test kits for the Seattle area, but so far, nothing has been approved. Even the State of New York Department of Health, which has created its own testing kit, is not allowed, per the CDC, to use that kit to perform tests.

Trying to understand what you're saying--is the quoted part not an error by the executive branch?

You are correct (natch). And as the head of the executive branch, POTUS deserves all the political blame for the failure of executive agencies to fulfill their missions expeditiously.

But politics and real life ain't the same thing. And if we're content to say, "Stupid Trump fucked this up," then we will, without question, avoid confronting the real issues that actually caused and exacerbated the problems with the CDC and the FDA.

In your view, is the Trump administration's slash-and-burn approach to those agencies, specifically, and to the idea of administrative agencies, generally, a significant contributor?

Did i miss where it was decided who ghost is? Ive heard outbreakorn, pdub said nooosh? Vega? Maybe this was already discussed and i am behind per usual.

TDub wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 4:16 pm Did i miss where it was decided who ghost is? Ive heard outbreakorn, pdub said nooosh? Vega? Maybe this was already discussed and i am behind per usual.

Probably Vega, but hasn't been confirmed. Colbond knows it's me tho.

Back on topic

jfish26 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 4:05 pm
In your view, is the Trump administration's slash-and-burn approach to those agencies, specifically, and to the idea of administrative agencies, generally, a significant contributor?

Just to clarify: are you suggesting that opposition to federal bureaucratic bloat is a "slash-and-burn" approach? Or do you have something else specifically in mind?

This is the AP (https://apnews.com/d36d6c4de29f4d04beda3db00cb46104)

MIKE BLOOMBERG: “There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing. And he’s defunded — he’s defunded Centers for Disease Control, CDC, so we don’t have the organization we need. This is a very serious thing.” — debate Tuesday night.

JOE BIDEN, comparing the Obama-Biden administration with now: “We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget. ... He’s wiped all that out. ... He cut the funding for the entire effort.”

THE FACTS: They’re both wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut. Bloomberg is repeating the false allegation in a new ad that states the U.S. is unprepared for the virus because of “reckless cuts” to the CDC. Trump’s budgets have proposed cuts to public health, only to be overruled by Congress, where there’s strong bipartisan support for agencies such as the CDC and NIH. Instead, financing has increased.

Indeed, the money that government disease detectives first tapped to fight the latest outbreak was a congressional fund created for health emergencies.

Some public health experts say a bigger concern than White House budgets is the steady erosion of a CDC grant program for state and local public health emergency preparedness — the front lines in detecting and battling new disease. But that decline was set in motion by a congressional budget measure that predates Trump.

The broader point about there being “nobody here” to coordinate the response sells short what’s in place to handle an outbreak.

The public health system has a playbook to follow for pandemic preparation — regardless of who’s president or whether specific instructions are coming from the White House. Those plans were put into place in anticipation of another flu pandemic, but are designed to work for any respiratory-borne disease.

Among the health authorities overseeing the work are Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s principal deputy director and a veteran of previous outbreaks, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIH’s infectious disease chief who has advised six presidents.

This is The Washington Post on budget cut proposals (not yet enacted) and the fact that the budget targets cuts and consolidation in CHRONIC disease matters: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/ ... story.html)

The budget request would trim funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by almost 16 percent. HHS officials said they want the CDC to focus on its core mission of preventing and controlling infectious diseases and on other emerging public health issues, such as opioid abuse.

Officials propose to take the money that would normally go to fund individual disease prevention activities and funnel it into a single block grant to states. The budget says chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes have common risk factors, and thus consolidating funds “can help magnify the public health impact.”...

Although the budget reduces overall funding for global health, from $571 million to $532 million in 2021, officials carved out an extra $50 million for global health security, which are measures aimed at disease detection and emergencies. That bump comes at the expense of international HIV/AIDS programs, which is being cut by about $58 million.

Ghost of dotNET past wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 4:19 pm

TDub wrote: ↑Tue Mar 10, 2020 4:16 pm Did i miss where it was decided who ghost is? Ive heard outbreakorn, pdub said nooosh? Vega? Maybe this was already discussed and i am behind per usual.

Probably Vega, but hasn't been confirmed. Colbond knows it's me tho.

Lawyer who lives in New York and missed me?

...hmmm....who could it be...