Hello dukkha,
your narrative is a bunch of crap as usual.. all the complaints is about testing -not his performance.
I am not surprised you disagree with my views.
The CDC, for some unexplained reason, at first refused to use the WHO testing protocols and tried to go it on their own. That failed and valuable time was lost.
"The World Health Organization had published a working version of a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test — commonly known as a PCR test — which uses snippets of genetic material to diagnose a virus. Tests based on the WHO data were already in widespread use in China. In South Korea, the government drug ministry was corralling biotech companies, telling them to begin working on tests based on the same data.
Pinsky also relied on the WHO protocols as he developed a PCR test. By early February, he had a test that he thought would work. And then he, and Stanford, waited, for weeks. That was all they could do until the federal government gave them the go-ahead to begin using it to diagnose the disease in patients.
For all its scientific know-how, the U.S has lagged behind in testing thanks to a combination of government hubris, incompetence and bureaucratic rigidity. Even now, there aren’t nearly enough tests being performed. According to the Covid Tracking Project, fewer than 500,000 tests have been done nationwide in March. It’s not even close to being enough.
If you want to understand why, Pinsky’s effort is as good a place as any to start. A scientist in a lab sees what is happening in China and takes it upon himself to develop a test — just in case. He adapts the WHO protocols to the specifics of his lab and the materials available to him (every lab is different, after all) and his test is ready to go in a matter of weeks.
With much less urgency, the federal government also begins working on a PCR test. But unlike Pinsky — not to mention most of the rest of the world — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides not to follow the WHO’s protocols. Nobody knows why. Instead, the CDC develops its own test, which all the nation’s labs will then have to replicate. But when it sends out 200 test kits to 100 labs in February, many of them don’t work. The CDC then promises to quickly come up with new tests, but one day stretches into three and then 10. Finally, in late February, the agency essentially throws up its hands and loosens its restrictions on clinical labs to develop their own tests. Alas, by then it is way too late. "
"“For the entire month of February, the only place you could get a test was from the CDC,” he told me. “The U.S. and South Korea both had their first diagnosis on the same day. For the entire month of February, the U.S. conducted 472 tests. South Korea conducted 70,000. They were doing thousands every day, while the U.S. was doing zero.” The clear reason is that the South Korean government was proactive from day 1, while the Trump administration sat on its hands.""
Why the U.S. Still Can’t Do Enough Coronavirus Testing - The country continues to suffer from a combination of government hubris, incompetence and bureaucratic rigidity.
The director of the CDC is appointed by the president, answers to the president, and may be fired at any time by the president.
The director of the CDC serves at the pleasure of the president.
The president is ultimately responsible for what the CDC does.
The CDC dropped the ball. It is a failure of the president.
