They say journalism is the first rough draft of history. With the Covid pandemic now a year old, we are starting to see books on the topic. And various libertarian studies and articles, critically examining government and private‐sector responses to the crisis, have appeared. But some of those rough drafts in the major media add up to a pretty strong critique of government failure by themselves. Just consider the disappointing, even tragic, analyses that have been appearing over the past year:
The federal government had reports and warnings and war games about pandemic danger at least as far back as 2001, but was apparently unprepared when it hit.
Simulations as recently as 2019 predicted that agencies would fail to work together even after all those reports and plans.
A Seattle lab doing a flu study proposed in February 2020 to start monitoring the novel coronavirus. When it couldn’t get approval from state and federal officials, the lab went ahead on its own. As the New York Times reported, “the Seattle Flu Study illustrates how existing regulations and red tape — sometimes designed to protect privacy and health — have impeded the rapid rollout of testing nationally.”
Washington Post, March 16: “From mid‐January until Feb. 28, fewer than 4,000 tests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used out of more 160,000 produced. The United States’ struggles, in [German entrepreneur Olfert] Landt’s view, stemmed from the fact the country took too long to use private companies to develop the tests. The coronavirus pandemic was too big and moving too fast for the CDC to develop its own tests in time, he said.”
Washington Post, April 3: “In the 21 days that followed, as Trump administration officials continued to rely on the flawed CDC test, many lab scientists eager to aid the faltering effort grew increasingly alarmed and exasperated by the federal government’s actions, according to previously unreported email messages and other documents reviewed by The Washington Post, as well as exclusive interviews with scientists and officials involved.
In their private communications, scientists at academic, hospital and public health labs — one layer removed from federal agency operations — expressed dismay at the failure to move more quickly and frustration at bureaucratic demands that delayed their attempts to develop alternatives to the CDC test.”
New York Times, June 3: “Given its record and resources, the [Centers for Disease Control] might have become the undisputed leader in the global fight against the virus.
Instead, the C.D.C. made missteps that undermined America’s response.
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