United States is screaming its COVID incompetence — from the CDC's rot-sagging rooftop

27 August 2020

Oh joy, ain't we sumpthin'?

Dribbling over to that part of the world — where the United States has (directly and indirectly) been killing kids in Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and so on — arrives the following exclamation of American genius and common sense:

The CDC now says that close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19 might not need to be tested if they do not have symptoms.

Previously, the agency had recommended testing for all close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19.

Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said the goal was "appropriate testing" and not more testing, and that there was no political pressure from the administration behind the decision.

CNN and The New York Times reported on Wednesday that US public health officials were ordered by high-level members of the Trump administration to go ahead with the changes.

Yes, Al Jazeera got that right

Here is the CDC's wording — taken directly from that agency's website:

Considerations for COVID-19 Diagnostic (Molecular or Antigen) Testing

If you have been in close contact (within 6 feet) of a person with a COVID-19 infection for at least 15 minutes but do not have symptoms:

You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.

A negative test does not mean you will not develop an infection from the close contact or contract an infection at a later time.

You should monitor yourself for symptoms. If you develop symptoms, you should evaluate yourself under the considerations set forth above.

You should strictly adhere to CDC mitigation protocols, especially if you are interacting with a vulnerable individual. You should adhere to CDC guidelines to protect vulnerable individuals with whom you live.

If you do not have COVID-19 symptoms and have not been in close contact with someone known to have a COVID-19 infection:

You do not need a test.

A negative test does not mean you will not contract an infection at a later time.

If you decide to be tested, you should self-isolate at home until your test results are known, and then adhere to your health care provider’s advice. This does not apply to routine screening or surveillance testing at work, school, or similar situations.

If you are in a high COVID-19 transmission area and have attended a public or private gathering of more than 10 people (without widespread mask wearing or physical distancing):

You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.

A negative test does not mean you will not develop an infection from the gathering or contract an infection at a later time.

You should monitor yourself for symptoms. If you develop symptoms, you should evaluate yourself under the considerations set forth above.

If you are tested, you should self-isolate at home until your test results are known, and then adhere to your health care provider’s advice.

This epidemiological insanity absolutely destroys the CDC's credibility

Which was weak to begin with, given the easily avoidable blunders it had already committed, regarding:

unworkable initial COVID tests

(despite months of advance warning)

and

its early-on public guidance not to use masks at all.

For added emphasis, we can also toss in the CDC's:

grossly inaccurate treatment of COVID numbers from the outset of its pretended infection-tracking.

In essence . . .

. . . the Trump Administration is letting the entire world know that the United States is going to let SARS-CoV-2 try to kill every vulnerable person that it wants to.

"It's just too much for our piddly Republican White Power selves to control (bro)."

The United States is admitting — world-wide — that . . .

One, the American manufacturing sector is too flabby to make enough COVID tests for something as simple as a crowded monkey house.

Two, our laboratory structure is too flaccidly inept to interpret them.

Three, the FDA is stalwartly and brainlessly opposed to approving and distributing cheap, at home, already proven paper COVID tests.

Four, the Proud USA (times three) is intentionally turning its population into a giant Lab Rat Testing Cage — all for Big Pharma profit.

Five, the United States continues to refuse to epidemiologically investigate the true infectiousness, morbidity and mortality of SARS-CoV-2 — because — it is much easier to cultivate Hysteria for Profit in the intentionally complete absence of medically important facts.

Six, the propagandized American public is probably going to go along with this perversely designed Evil — because:

"We're so frickin' great! — Predatory Capitalism rules! — USA, USA, USA!"

In closing, consider the underlying (hidden) political tactics

This CDC thing is what happens when Americans allow the Republican Party to infiltrate government with chief executives — who deliberately turn government agencies into manifestations of egregious incompetence.

That is the Republican Plan:

Make government ineffective, or worse, and then step back and say, "See, government doesn't work."

For an alternative instance

The decade-plus long burdening of the US Postal Service:

with financial obligations

(that no other government service is required to undertake)

and

its treatment as something other than

a government-provided public service —

as well as the actively imposed

anti-competitive constraints

that prevent USPS

from becoming profitable

(as Post Offices in other countries are) —

continue to occur for exactly

this Republican-sponsored

"government is bad" reason.

"Government is bad" except — of course — in its bottomless capacity to continue to funnel cumulatively trillions of dollars to American oligarchs and plutocrats at the Public's expense.

The moral? — If you needed another legitimate reason to vote the orange Il Duce Blob out of the White House . . .

The CDC's latest epidemiological nonsense is it.

Be proud, my friends. Be proud.

Y'all ain't got nuthin' else.

We eagerly await the next American public confession of its aggressively rot-spreading "Shithole" status.

PeteFree.com

United States is screaming its COVID incompetence — from the CDC's rot-sagging rooftop