Htowngriz said:
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Trump had ample warning from the intelligence community that this thing had the potential to explode here. He was more interested ...
Ah, the wonders of hind-sight. Yes, we now learn that there was intel that the coronavirus was worse than the Chinese were reporting and that it posed a bigger threat than anyone in the administration expected. My first thought is: Who opened his/her yap? Sure it’s great to be “transparent,” but there’s also a responsibility to protect intel sources. That's a big, big reason why information gets classified, BTW. Hopefully, the leak was laundered enough to not reveal the intel source(s), but I wouldn’t count on it. But the media doesn’t give a damn.
But leaving all that aside, the prez has lots of different advisers and experts. One of those expert sources is the CDC. On January 17, the CDC broadcast a long message about the coronavirus to its HAN (Health Alert Network ), which goes out to thousands of recipients across the country (health departments, research schools and hospital, and so on). Link (be warned, it’s quite long):
https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/han00426.asp
The header says “This is an official CDC
Health Update.” Here are some quotes from the tome they sent out.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to closely monitor an outbreak of a 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China that began in December 2019. CDC has established an Incident Management System to coordinate a domestic and international public health response.
…
Although the transmission dynamics have yet to be determined, CDC currently recommends a cautious approach to patients under investigation for 2019-nCoV …
HAN Message Types
• Health Alert: Conveys the highest level of importance; warrants immediate action or attention.
• Health Advisory: Provides important information for a specific incident or situation; may not require immediate action.
• Health Update: Provides updated information regarding an incident or situation; unlikely to require immediate action.
• Info Service: Provides general information that is not necessarily considered to be of an emergent nature.
Thus, in mid-January, the CDC was recommending only “a cautious approach,” although they had set up “an Incident Management System.” They classified this specific message at the third lowest level of urgency, not as an Alert or even an Advisory. Note that the Health Update level is “unlikely to require immediate action.”
Top officials were getting conflicting stories, one from the intel community and one from the actual health experts. After three years, the prez probably does not particularly trust the intel community anyway (can you say “leaks like a sieve”). When the qualified experts are urging only a “cautious approach,” what would you be likely to do?
On February 7, after the prez put limitations on travel to/from China, the CDC sent out another long information package … again not an Alert or even an Advisory. Buried in that long document was the following:
What are the implications for public health practice?
Health care providers should remain vigilant regarding possible 2019-nCoV exposure not only among returning travelers, but also among persons in close contact with 2019-nCoV patients in the United States.
"Cautious approach" and then "remain vigilant." These are not my opinions, they are actual statements directly from the main body that this country relies upon for national health-system advice.