Tweet

Cheryl Rofer

31 Dec 20, 9 tweets, 3 min read

I think I've found the problem.

General Gustave Perna was nominated by President Trump to be COO for Operation Warp Speed on May 18. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 2. A month and a half. 1/
army.mil/article/235694…
defense.gov/Newsroom/Relea…

"[H]is team did not have a clear understanding of why these delays were happening"?????
2/

nytimes.com/2020/12/30/hea…

Perna should have available to him project management printouts of the vaccine transport, the centers to which it is going and the plans for distribution from there, the personnel available, and the locations for vaccinations. 3/

Those summaries should be compiled from data the states are keeping in project management form. 4/

"Hospitals and other facilities administering the vaccines are still learning how to store the doses"?????

Why didn't this training start in August?

"a drive that is just gearing up and expected to take several months" for long-term care facilities?????

Why weren't people lined up and ready to go as soon as the vaccine arrived? 6/

That's how I would have done it, but what do I know from managing environmental cleanups on time and under budget? 7/7

Coda: My guess is that Perna didn't have the budget and probably not the budget authority to get project management support and guidance out to the states.

I'll also guess that he had constant ignorant demands from Trump's political apparatus, like Jared Kushner.

Another view, complementary to my thread.
washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/1…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

More from @CherylRofer

Cheryl Rofer

@CherylRofer

8 Jun 20

Huh. I see this tweet has been deleted, as has the one for #85. Some good comments, so I won't delete it. Maybe I need to do screenshots from here on.

Adventures in Masculinity #87

I guess we might as well go for the obvious

Adventures in Masculinity #88
"But the messaging behind all of this is crap. It presents mask-wearing as something cool that men can individually do in order to be rugged heroes, deserving of accolades for their brave, manly choices."

washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/styl…

Read 6 tweets

Cheryl Rofer

@CherylRofer

26 Apr 20

Act I: Donald Trump withdraws from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in which Iran agreed to give up all work that could lead to nuclear weapons.
whitehouse.gov/presidential-a…

https://twitter.com/james_acton32/status/1140956088906465280

Experts warned that this withdrawal would give up leverage on Iran.

https://twitter.com/james_acton32/status/1140956088906465280

Act II: The remaining members of the JCPOA stay with it and try to make it work. The US begins "maximum pressure," reinstating sanctions that Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo believe will make Iran bend to their will.

Iran does not bend to their will.

Read 10 tweets

Cheryl Rofer

@CherylRofer

12 Apr 20

Rant on modeling

1. There are a hundred gazillion models out there. Few of their owners have bothered to compare their model to others to see what is working and what isn't.

2. By the standards of the models I've worked with, they are all simple - a few differential equations, a curve fit. I've worked with a hundred or more elementary reactions and then a mass- and heat-transfer model that incorporated those in. (Hint: we had to boil them down to six

3. The only model I have seen that is at all transparent about its parameters is the Imperial College model. All the others I have seen are curve fits. They mumble about social distancing as a variable, but never say which parameter it fits into.

Read 8 tweets

Cheryl Rofer

@CherylRofer

26 Mar 20

https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1242954004914524160

The worst is beginning to happen in New York City. It will probably get worse over the next couple of weeks. The people who are dying now were infected two to three weeks ago. 1/

https://twitter.com/ByMikeBaker/status/1242954004914524160

New York is the first. These scenes will wash across the United States. Some of it may be mitigated by the lockdowns now occurring. Their full effects will not be felt for two or three weeks. 2/

The President of the United States has a show every day for his underlings to praise him and to tell us what a great job he is doing. And to urge that the shutdown end.

The tv channels are beginning to think that maybe they should not be carrying The Coronavirus Show live.

Read 8 tweets

Cheryl Rofer

@CherylRofer

6 Mar 20

Last Thursday, Vice President Pence said that this week test kits for the novel coronavirus would be available for a million people.

It's Thursday again, and I think maybe test kits came out today for a few thousand people.

I have questions. 1/

1. Who made the decision that CDC should develop a test of its own?
2. Why was that done rather than using the existing WHO test?
3. Why are multiple laboratories now developing their own tests?
2/

I ask those questions because it's often important to have one standard test. Additionally, if a test is available, why put time and effort/money into developing another one?

Read 12 tweets