News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The CDC waited 'it's entire existence for this moment.' What went wrong?.

Re:The CDC waited 'it's entire existence for this moment.' W... by orev on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @04:55PM (#23408604)
I can’t help but think of the CDC (hear me out) as the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones. 1) Setup to protect against things that haven’t happened in most people’s lifetimes. 2) Reduced funding/personnel because nobody really believes it can happen (due to #1). 3) When something finally happens, ignored because it conflicts with the desired political narrative.

As the most watched TV show in history, it wouldn’t be difficult to draw an easy parallel between to two in order to illustrate systemic failure to the public.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The CDC waited 'it's entire existence for this moment.' W... by david38 on Thursday June 04, 2020 @12:38AM (#23412473)
Similarly, I think of it as your point 1 plus no practice.

It’s nearly impossible to prepare for something and get it right when it’s never actually happened. Rockets for example get massive amounts of study and simulations and then still get things wrong.

Yes, sometimes you get lucky, but this is also dealing with human behavior and biology. Less predictable than say, computers.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The CDC waited 'it's entire existence for this moment.' W... by orev on Thursday June 04, 2020 @11:47AM (#23418171)
The human behavior factor has changed dramatically with the introduction of social media. People react very differently to information when it’s a constant unfiltered stream, when in the past it was more of a daily update of (somewhat) vetted information. Social science is still grappling with how social media has affected human behavior.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The CDC waited 'it's entire existence for this moment.' W... by nopzor on Thursday June 04, 2020 @08:07AM (#23415528)
this is a good point, but a lot of what the cdc is/has prepared for in these kind of situations is related to human psychology, and trying to factor that in to their plans.
[ Parent | on HN ]