Statement by a quarantined nurse from a northern California Kaiser facility [pdf] | Hacker News Reader

Statement by a quarantined nurse from a northern California Kaiser facility [pdf]

act.nationalnursesunited.org

24 pointsclaudeganon13 comments

If the world had taken this seriously a month ago we wouldn't be in this situation.

If the world took it seriously today, we wouldn't be as fucked as we're going to be a month from now.

Front-line personnel must always be first priority, because they deserve that, and because everyone else needs them.

If we took it seriously, what would we have done differently? Do you think there are specific actions that we could have done, and what would the different outcome be?

"The CDC shunned WHO test guidelines used by other countries and set out to create a more complicated test of its own that could identify a range of similar viruses. But when it was sent to labs across the country in the first week of February, it didn’t work as expected." https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-...

The CDC could have adoopted the WHO guidelines for testing at the start. It's reasonable to assume that if they had, the US would now have a much greater testing capacity.

What, specifically, do you think more testing will do? Think through the implications, for example, if we test an enormous number of people and they are positive, do we quarantine them? We don't actually have the health infrastructure to do that (nor the political will to run large-scale quarantines).

(personally, I think the CDC is a lot wiser than WHO about what to do in the US, and making decisions during a rapidly expanding epidemiological situation isn't just trivial "test more people").

>What, specifically, do you think more testing will do?

The CDC & other testing authorities have been systematically denying requests by doctors and other health professionals, to test people who are at meaningful risk of Covid-19 infection. Indications are this is due to a lack of testing capacity.

There are numerous news reports of CDC refusing testing. It seems odd that anyone is missing them.

Here are some examples of what I'm referring to https://act.nationalnursesunited.org/page/-/files/graphics/N...

https://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-man-denied-coronavi...

https://news.yahoo.com/us-patient-coronavirus-unknown-origin...

Here's a case where doctors kept pushing back against CDC refusals. Eventually the woman tested positive. https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/breaking-floyd-county...

If these aren't enough examples of CDC's ongoing testing problems, there are plenty of others - all there for the searching.

Do you believe that more testing will limit the spread of disease? Please, explain in detail why, while also considering the risks associatd with large-scale testing.

(I'm an ex-biologist with a fair amount of experience in this area; I think most people who are demanding tests assume that having a bunch of tests will limit the spread. it's entirely unclear that's the case)

>Do you believe that more testing will limit the spread of disease?

While the US is looking forward to an explosion in cases, South Korea is looking forward to containment. One factor is that SK tests at 700 times the rate of the US. re: https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-testing-covid-19...

> Please, explain in detail why, while also considering the risks associatd with large-scale testing.

No.

Video version here:

https://mobile.twitter.com/NNUBonnie/status/1235663306246860...

Health professionals are subject to triage just like ordinary patients? In a pandemic most people will be a long way out on the tail.

The CDC needs to clean house.

Waiting in line. Priority subject to unaccountable officials. Yup, sounds like government run healthcare.

you're right! lets just let the free market decide! /s

in reality though these are private institutions run with private money. how can you blame the government when it seems they have little interest in acknowledging there is a problem in the first case.

I didn't realize that the county and state health officials, as well as the CDC were private institutions. My bad.

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