I fear that the Iowa Caucus system may look good compared to how the Center for Disease Control and related agencies in this country are able to deal with a potential “pandemic”, never mind the current threat from the “coronavirus”.
There are four sources that contribute to this concern.
- One was a podcast episode from the NYTimes “The Daily” January 30th, last week, about how the current coronavirus existed before the Chinese government took it seriously and, in fact, systems were in place to discourage those who tried to warn about this virus.
- The Chinese Doctor who first warned of the virus in China, but was censored, died yesterday of the virus.
- On Fresh Air, February 6, a scientist David Quammen who wrote in 2012 a book, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic, explains what the dangers are from these viruses and how the budgets in the US to the resources to handle these challenges are currently being weakened not strengthened.
- To be clear, in China, right now, 56 million Chinese citizens are currently in a travel lockdown. 56 million people can’t go from point A to point B. Think about it as you go through your weekend.
- Today, I went to my weekly PT appointment at Patriot’s Place in Foxboro. At check-in, they asked me two new questions: Do you have any cold or flu symptoms? Have you recently traveled outside the country? (not have you recently traveled to China but have you traveled outside the country). I don’t know what happens if I’d answered yes to both. I’m not sure they know.
I do not pretend to know anything about disease control but I did grow up when Polio was a real threat and remember visiting an aunt, a mother with nine children, who was in an iron lung in a hospital on a hill in Boston until she died from complications of polio in 1953.
I received a series of shots as I remember it when the polio vaccine was discovered.
We were not allowed to go to public pools. That’s the only thing I remember as a travel restriction.
The travel restrictions of this 2020 virus mean streets in some Chinese cities are empty. Airports are not bringing travelers in or out unless it is a special flight to return non-Chinese citizens to their own country where they will be quarantined for 2 weeks.
So, I answered “no” to both the questions, received good care from my physical therapist, and went home rattled. The concern has surfaced in my medical delivery system. On the way home, the AP was refusing to declare a winner from the Iowa Caucus due to irregularities. A disaster of a system if I ever saw one..but, wait.
I can’t help but wonder a Reaganesque question,
“Are the Center for Disease Control and related agencies better off today than four years ago? “
David Quammen clearly knows the answer to this question. They are not. Their budgets have been weakened with more proposed cuts in the system.
The Center for Disease Control may be in the same position their counterparts in China found themselves is my fear: #1 Afraid to tell the truth. #2 Not have the budget to respond even if the truth is told.
If a Trump supporter or a Sanders supporter or a Mayor Pete or Elizabeth Warren supporter answer “Yes” to both questions today as they check-in for a medical appointment in Massachusetts, Alabama, or Florida, or Colorado, New Hampshire or Iowa or Oregon, do they know what will happen to them?
If I was the moderator of the debate tonight, I know what question would be #1 and it wouldn’t be about the failures of the Iowa Caucus System.
