White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations
reuters.com
reuters.com
Maybe they are just hoping that if they lie and withhold information long enough it will just disappear over summer? Seems like a really silly gamble with a huge potential downside and nearly nonexistent upside.
Without a treatment or vaccine there is no point in testing. It will just cause panic. The US isn’t like other countries where people go to the doctor when they get sick. If people think they just have the flu they will just stay home and die instead of putting a strain on resources.
A morbid reality, but the best solution for the system we have. Transparency and testing won’t be good for anyone. What works everywhere else doesn’t always work in the US.
Not to mention various treatments are being tested. Gilead has a promising drug, and it looks like an old malaria drug might be just what is needed. Lots of promising results in petri dishes, none from a good double blind study... yet. A delay of a month or two might well halve the death rate, even ignoring things like over burdened hospitals.
Panic only makes it worse. The sad reality is the best option we have at the moment is for people to pretend like nothing is wrong. Everyone gets to keep their job, income and health insurance for as long as possible. If you get sick, stay home. If you get really sick weigh the cost of going to the doctor against death.
In much of the US many people will opt to just die at home instead of seek medical care. As a result, the system actually won’t get overloaded. If people panic and start showing up at the ER it will though.
I don't know what you mean by this - we've had "snow days" for a very long time.
Even so, it would still be stupid to let those limited discussions be where policy was made.
Maybe public health isn't the only thing being discussed in these meetings?
What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash the stock market?
Most likely, yes. They will prevent the public from seeing the extent of the problem until after thousands of people die they will use their media resources to blame someone else.