Just Some of the Ways the CDC Failed the Nation

Dr. Robert R. Redfield is the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (DonkeyHotey)

On Dec. 26, 2020 The Washington Post published a lengthy article which examined in great detail what went wrong at the CDC in terms of the very significant delay in approving/releasing the first test for SARS-Co-V-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.  The problems appear to have started at the top of the agency, that is at the office of the Director, Dr. Robert Redfield.  (See also below.)  They did involve staff at a variety of levels.  This brief note adds some details about decision-making, Dr. Redfield, the CDC staff, and subsequent developments that are not noted in the article.

Without getting into the details of the development/non-development of that first test, the following should be noted:

1.   At the beginning of the outbreak (late January, 2020), as detailed in the article, the CDC was offered a test for the virus by WHO that was quick, easy, and already known to be effective in detecting infection. No one knows for sure why the WHO test was turned down, but that order could have come from the Master Xenophobe Trump himself who, as is well-known, hates WHO as well as virtually every other international agency with which the US has cooperated in the past. 

2.   Dr. Redfield had had no experience in running a large organization (which even with the approximately 1/3 cut in its budget imposed by the Trumpists, it still was/is).  (At least) one reason why Dr. Redfield was chosen to head the Trump-CDC is that while a long-time CDCer he is also Christian rightist who, as it happens, was dropped from the HIV/AIDS team, even under Reagan (!), because for HIV prevention he advocated abstinence.

3.  For her troubles, when Dr. Nancy Messonier warned about what was coming in mid-February, she literally got yelled at in public by Trump who at the time was calling such warnings a “hoax” and a “Democratic plot to steal the election from him” (sound familiar?), echoed of course repeatedly by Sean Hannity, et al at Fox.  One cannot blame her for keeping her head down ever since.  

4.  Dr. Birx, for whom I have a lot of respect/sympathy for trying to remain on Team Trump to be its scientist and oppose the Boy Public Healther Scotty Atlas, and has recently come out with some very strong pro-public health positions, is also, for what it’s worth, a Christian Rightist.