A thread, tying together delayed testing for the novel #coronavirus with our failure to follow our constitutional form of government. Please first read this outstanding article:
thedispatch.com/p/timeline-the…
thedispatch.com/p/timeline-the…
We've all heard bits and pieces of how and why the testing situation in the U.S. is what it is, but this article appears to collect all of that together into one coherent story and timeline.
My big question is this:
My big question is this:
If (and I know this to be true) federal, state, and local officials have been doing pandemic planning and exercises for *decades,* with the Great Influenza in mind as the situation to be prevented, did they never actually ask themselves any questions about
the process for creating and distributing tests for the new agent/organism? Did that part never get exercised, such that these problems, 99% due to bureaucratic red tape and thinking, were exposed as problems that needed solutions *before* the pandemic?
Some of the comments to the article make the provably false claim that the President "disbanded" the Pandemic Response Team. No matter, and frankly no matter if there even were such a thing, because the facts in this article show that relying on a few people
for all of your decisions and actions is deadly wrong. Americans prevail because we, in a *distributed, independent* way, knowing the end-state we are aiming for, seek out knowledge, adapt, and overcome, creating solutions to meet the current, local situation
("boots on the ground," as the Army calls it). The processes followed in this case, mandated by *regulations,* made doing so illegal.
And what are regulations? They are the combining of making law, enforcing law, and judging the breaking of law into one role, which,
And what are regulations? They are the combining of making law, enforcing law, and judging the breaking of law into one role, which,
as our Founders knew so well, is the definition of tyranny. Congress writes a vague law and gives the role of writing the details to regulatory agencies (making law). The agencies themselves go out and do inspections or require that entities submit paperwork about compliance,
then cite the entities for breaking the agency's 'law' (enforcing the law). Then the entity is judged by the same agency, which decides guilt and punishment/fines (judging the breaking of law).
We do not elect agency bureaucrats, so they are extremely powerful officials who are accountable to no one (look at Office of Personnel & Management rules for trying to fire them, and then try to do so; I have, but only because I gave short shrift to much of my real job).
Our system of government is supposed to be *self* government, through separate branches with *different* roles. We should not be slaves to bureaucrats. //
@threadreaderapp , please unroll
