Coronavirus Part V: The Epic Failure at The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention

I just finished a busy week seeing patients. During this time, I saw at least six patients who had flu-like illnesses. Did they have COVID-19? I don’t know. Why don’t I know? I can’t tell my patients if the are sick with coronavirus because there are no test kits available to me.  However, test kits are widely available in many other countries including Iran, Japan, South Korea, Germany, or China. In fact, hundreds of thousands of coronavirus tests have been run in other countries.

But, NOT in the US.

As of Monday, March 2, 2020, the US has tested a few hundred people for coronavirus. According to the CDC, 337 more kits were released on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Why are other countries able to test for coronavirus and we aren’t?!?!

The Guide to Healthy E... David Brownstein, M.D. Best Price: $1.46 Buy New $2.99 (as of 08:55 UTC - Details) When the coronavirus epidemic started late last year in China, the World Health Organization (WHO), with help from German researchers, quickly developed a test for coronavirus. This is the test used by every other country except…the US. “The CDC insisted that only its test–and not the one developed by the WHO, for example–could be used on suspected cases, and even CDC tests would [only} be administered under limited circumstances.” (1)

Folks, this is an unmitigated disaster! How do we know how many people are infected with coronavirus if we can’t test them? It feels almost idiotic to ask that question.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are a perfect example of a FAILED Federal agency. On the CDC homepage it is stated that the CDC “Is working 24/7 to protect America from health and safety threats both foreign and domestic.” (2)

The coronavirus pandemic illustrates the failure of the CDC to properly do its job. And, because of that, we suffer.

In the US, we spend almost 18% of our GNP on healthcare. This is markedly higher than any other Western country. Yet, we are last or nearly last in every health indicator. We are last in neonatal mortality and we live shorter lives when compared to every other major Western country.

We are clearly getting cheated when it comes to healthcare.  And, the CDC is very good at cheating us. They cheated us by stealing $1 billion dollars for the Zika non-epidemic. Now, they will get paid handsomely for their missteps with coronavirus.

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