Back on Feb 10th the CDC had done 398 tests, it's now Feb 25th, 15 days later and they've only done 426 tests. The surveillance testing that was meant to be set up totally failed to work and still hasn't started.
The virus is 3+ generations on in Italy where it's gone from no cases to 322 cases and 11 deaths in a few days, and now cases are showing up in neighboring countries. Expect a similar kind of surprise "outbreak" to appear here in the US once we eventually get testing capabilities up to speed.
Probably the biggest disappointment has been the deliberate and dangerous misinformation that was spread online and on the news saying the flu was more dangerous. Most people I've spoken to have been under this false belief.
* Watching their press conferences I have no idea how the average American comes away with concrete steps for preparation. The pressers seem mostly focused on laying out everything the HHS / CDC doesn't know and describing that the CDC "is assessing its own preparation" - suggesting they're still not prepared even though the situation has been building for weeks.
* The COVID-19 section on their website is still focused on China even though the virus has obviously spread at this point to several countries.
I suspect the virus itself is unavoidable at this point unless you're willing to walk around with eye protection, rubber gloves, an N95 respirator, etc. But it's critically important to suggest what counter measures (if any) the US can expect to employ, like imposed travel restrictions and curfews in affected areas, so Americans can adequately prepare supplies.
I know HN is not supposed to be a political place, but you can't talk about Covid-19 without talking about politics. Elected officials in the US have an enormous amount of power over how an outbreak spreads here. They control budgets, budget allocations, and all the preparedness/response bureaucracies that are supposed to be ready for situations like this[1].
Per my friend, the Trump administration has been replacing mid-level appointees with political donors who have absolutely no idea what they're doing -- at best. In some cases, they're actively anti-government, so they're both malicious and incompetent. The CDC's response has been crippled by many of these appointees.
This is most evident at the State Department. Despite CDC employees screaming at them not to let the Japanese cruise ship passengers into the country, they did it anyway[2].
And then you have the usual propaganda and denialism, such as Larry Kudlow claiming today that Covid-19 is contained[3].
There are a thousand ways Trumpism has fueled this crisis, and I can't summarize them all here, but there is a bipartisan outcry[4] over this issue that has had mixed success.
I apologize again for the baldly politics-related post, but I think this issue highlights the limitations of HN's anti-politics moderation. It's very difficult to divorce issues of science, business, or (especially) society when politicians are major forces in all of them.
1. https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/483320-wo...
2. https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-cruise-ship-us-passe...
3. https://seekingalpha.com/news/3545343-kudlow-says-u-s-contai...
4. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/31/coronavirus-china-trump...
If I gave you the choice tomorrow of being infected with this seasons flu or the coronavirus, which would you pick? Hopefully you're smart enough to understand the difference between a 0.1% mortality rate and a 2% mortality rate.
Leading people to believe the flu is more dangerous has slowed (and is still slowing) the response, reducing preparedness, increasing the spread, and as such will have a part to play in loss of life from this virus.
COVID19 is both more transmittable and has a fatality rate an order of magnitude larger.
https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.h...
