For some reason the Song "Killing me Softly" is playing in my head as I write this. Only as my mind does, the words are "killing me stupidly." I won't inflict the doggerral (yet), but what is going on with this Corona Virus 2019 pandemic, is so incredibly insane that I'm not only sheltering in place in my own home, but the other tune that keeps playing in my head is the Twilight Zone theme song. Trump's handling of the issue, before we knew of the pandemic, has been incredibly crazy!
Back before my wife died, one of the groups I worked with were the medical logistics people. I forget the term for their group (the documents were all company sensitive so I don't think I have any left) but what they were doing was Epidemiological Situation awareness. One of the areas we were looking at was Pandemic readiness. I'm no expert, but some of the people I worked with were. My software friends were developing software to track outbreaks, ID, track and treat patients and exposures. What we should be doing is treating this like a war. But one where the enemy is the disease, not each other.
We should be mobilizing:
- Providers and training people to help them.
- Isolation tents, ventilators, respirators.
- Personal Protective Equipment for medical providers and anyone who might interact with the sick.
- That includes gloves, masks, encounter suits, etc...
- We need all the supplies now.
Instead
We have (or had) the people needed to deal with a global pandemic. John Bolton disbanded the Pandemic unit and pretended to move its function to the counter-terrorism unit. The military has experts in military logistics who use health intelligence to plan out exactly what is needed. The experts were ignored for talk of using quinine and snake oil, blow driers, and quack medicine to treat the disease, and efforts to protect the wealthy and keep businesses open despite the workers in them getting sick.
Results
Without contract testing and tracing
- The people with early signs of the disease spread it before they ever know they are ill
- Instead of quarantining the ill, we have to shut down everything.
- The people we need to fight the virus, will die themselves.
Without protective gear
- our doctors will get sick and be unable to treat the ill.
- Warehouse workers and truck drivers will get sick and be unable to deliver food and supplies
- The economy is collapsing.
All this was avoidable.
