Re:U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' to a Shortage, CEO...
by nradov on Monday April 13, 2020 @03:11PM
(#22859004)
True enough, but the CDC discretionary budget was tiny. In order to establish a significant stockpile they would have needed a budget line item from Congress. So Congress certainly deserves a portion of the blame for lack of foresight.
Re:U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' to a Shortage, CEO...
by throwaway894345 on Monday April 13, 2020 @03:43PM
(#22859251)
I don’t buy that argument because:
1. Masks were dirt cheap and certainly useful for any serious epidemic or bioterrorism event or just about any other emergency scenario for which the CDC would be called upon (our reserves were in the tens of thousands, but those masks sell for cents apiece—could have had a million masks for ~$500K)
2. The CDC didn’t even have plans to secure the supply chain, and plans are damn near free
3. The CDC was budget constrained but went and developed its own test instead of using the WHO test?
EDIT: Updated math figure
Re:U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' to a Shortage, CEO...
by belltaco on Monday April 13, 2020 @04:21PM
(#22859600)
>could have had a billion masks for ~$500K
Something is seriously off with your math.
Re:U.S. Meat Supply Is 'Perilously Close' to a Shortage, CEO...
by throwaway894345 on Monday April 13, 2020 @05:18PM
(#22860111)
Only 3 orders of magnitude. :)
Thanks for the correction.
Unfortunately, the CDC learned no such lesson and continued to operate as though no widespread contagious disease could possibly break out on US soil, as they had virtually no stockpile of masks nor even plans to secure the mask supply chain, etc (not to mention their testing strategy only scaled to hundreds of cases per day). I suppose that's the unitary state.
Of course, the CDC should have a serious reserve of masks (and other general equipment for the most likely outbreaks) and plans to secure the supply chain, including partnering with private industry to make sure they can operate at an increased capacity in case of emergency. There's no fundamental reason that our federal agencies have to be incompetent with respect to their fundamental purpose.