George Rebane
Our dispensers of perennial hate have now fastened on to the shortage of Covid test kits in the land, and claim that the President had two months warning and did nothing. The fact of the matter, as even reported in the NYT (here), is that no one around the world knew of the actual epidemiological parameters of Covid. And no one did anything about it, starting with China’s Communist Party which initially tried to hide and play down what was happening in Wuhan.
Another fact of the matter is that there are perhaps tens of infectious disease outbreaks around the globe each year, most in inaccessible places that stay and abate there. But some do get out into the more traveled parts of the world. While we may know about each of such outbreaks, gearing up the nation’s medical machinery to combat a full-blown epidemic on our shores for each of these has never been either a reasonable or feasible response. Last December Covid-19 started out just like one of these outbreaks.
In any case, the problem we have with starting up any mass production of medicines and medical supplies is – drum roll please – big government. The litigious regulatory state has grown to such an extent that everyone who could, moved their manufacturing offshore. We make less that 10% of the medicines we consume – most are made in Chinese pharma factories. No one gets extra credit for answering, ‘which of America’s political factions promote high cost of labor, draconian and unfathomable regulations, litigation at the drop of the hat, high taxes and fees on businesses, and overwhelming government bureaucracies to oversee and enforce the whole mess?’ And after that, they scream about high prices for the consumer.
But let’s get back to testing. The anti-Trump lamestream continues to convince the public that Covid testing is somehow a prophylactic against the virus. And things would have been much better had we been able to test all Americans from the gitgo. That, it turns out, is unabashed bull crap. Princeton’s liberal professor of economics and public policy, Alan Blinder, advises President Trump that ‘The Best Stimulus Is Coronavirus Testing Kits’. Why? Because testing negative will give comfort to the consumer to go out there and keep shopping, since consumer spending makes up 70% of our GDP.
A little thought reveals that 1) a negative Covid test does not prevent subsequent infection, and 2) since a negative test is only a snapshot in time, we can’t make and distribute enough test kits to give continuous comfort to the consumer. (We don’t even know the sensitivity of the tests; at what level of pre-symptomatic Covid presence will the test register positive.) Testing negative on Monday does not guarantee that you will not be infected on Tuesday, nor that you will not be infecting others by Friday. The only benefit a one-time comprehensive testing provides is to identify potential pockets of infection which might be contained by a timely regional quarantine, a quarantine which no one really knows how to enforce (as our Italian friends have discovered). And to provide such information for making public policy on an ongoing basis requires testing entire populations also on an ongoing basis. For that we have neither the funds, the manufacturing capacity, the distribution and administration organization, nor the capable personnel to administer tests and interpret the results – in short, it’s not in the cards.
Given all that, the only ‘benefit’ that the spread of Covid in America provides is ammo for the Democrats to continue lambasting President Trump and his administration, while hoping that their absurd accusations get some traction with the country’s lightly read, and therefore divert attention from the obviously diminished-capacity senior citizen who they’re putting up for President this fall.
[12mar20 update] The Democrats’ program of Big Lies continues with their and their lamestream lackeys’ assertions that the Trump administration continues to mismanage the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This is now asserted as a given on the leftwing broadcast media. However, the medical professionals who the President has working on the problem is made up of people like the NIH immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci (who has also advised six Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many other domestic and global health issues) . None of their careers are dependent on their current jobs, but all of their professional credentials are. And to date none have criticized the federal response as being somehow inadequate in the sense that something else or more could be done today which isn’t being done. In short, all these health pros agree that what the administration did and continues to do with the information and resources available at the time was aggressively proper. And compared to what other governments have done, America under Trump is way in the lead in executing its pandemic mitigation policies. According to my lights, the perniciously partisan public propaganda that the Democrats are trumpeting today puts them squarely in the sleazebag evil category.
Apropos to this politicizing, in 2009-10 we had the H1N1 (swine flu) epidemic under Obama, who could do no wrong. Around 60,000,000 Americans were infected, and about 12,000 died (its death rate was a bit higher than the annual flu’s). But the pandemic was not politicized, and it finally abated as people took normal precautions with social distancing and the usual care for flu cases.
(H/T to reader for the above graphic.)
Another hot flash from the NC school district nurse who informed the attendees at a service club meeting that keeping hydrated is good, and staying hydrated with hot drinks like tea is better. It also doesn’t like Vitamin C. The virus does not like wet, and hot wet is especially toxic to it. Also take a look (here) at how long the virus survives in various non-human environments.
[13mar20 update] Worthy of note is America’s unique process for most medical tests as outlined by Dr Fauci in his congressional testimony. It turns out that to get tested for Covid-19 you need to go to your physician who then will decide whether to prescribe that you be tested. Most EU countries apparently allow the patient to get the test kit on his own recognizance, perform the test, and submit the ‘kit’ for interpretation by medical authorities. They do this to reduce costs of their national healthcare programs which are already unsustainable and forever seeking to eliminate services in a manner that will evade public attention and response. We should follow their cost saving example and also allow self-testing, at least during this pandemic. Longer term consideration of this policy is warranted – e.g. case in point, we allow self-testing for pregnancy with OTC test kits.
[15mar20 update] The commentary and discussion on Covid-19 and testing for it is continued here.
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment