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Don’t Test, Don’t Tell

February 27, 2020 | Ben Hunt | 25 Comments |

I want to highlight a couple of quotes from this email.

Since the patient did not fit the existing CDC criteria for COVID-19, a test was not immediately administered. UC Davis Health does not control the testing process.

The facts here are pretty clear. Patient comes in from another hospital on Wednesday, Feb. 19 - this is one week ago - already intubated and on a ventilator, and the doctors at UC Davis - who have treated other COVID-19 cases - IMMEDIATELY suspect COVID-19.

But the CDC refuses to test for COVID-19.

Why? Because it didn't fit their "criteria" for testing. They didn't know for sure that the patient was in mainland China within the past 14 days, and they didn't know for sure that the patient was in close contact with another confirmed case, so BY DEFINITION this patient can't possibly have COVID-19. No test for you!

This is "Don't Test, Don't Tell" and it is the single most incompetent, corrupt public health policy of my lifetime.

And it's happening all over the country.

Here, take a look at yesterday's press conference from Nassau County, Long Island.


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Comments

  1. Can you please make this into a .pdf. I’ve been sharing these with my “pack”… Thank you!

  2. “When it becomes serious, you have to lie.” ~ Jean-Claude Juncker, former President of the European Commission, May 2011

  3. Agreed! We need more of these in PDF. They just don’t print well.

  4. Could it be there is a shortage of test kits and the criteria are a rationing mechanism?

  5. Ben, what changes have you made, if any, in your personal life in response to this? Do you think domestic travel limitations make sense in the US?

  6. Killer Math: CA’s governor just announced the state is “monitoring” 8,400 patients for potential CoVid-19 infection and has only 200 test kits. (source ft.com)

    Whee!

  7. Avatar for bhunt bhunt says:

    Yep! It’s up now.

  8. Avatar for bhunt bhunt says:

    I think there’s a shortage of test kits in the US from sheer incompetence, but the criteria are the result of an entirely different sort of sheer incompetence.

  9. Avatar for hhong hhong says:

    You’re exactly right. Same thing happening in Canada right now. Same attitude/approach during SARS. I was a physician during SARS in Toronto at the time. Nothing has changed at all, unfortunately. Only a singular ability to avoid any introspection by the respective public health/government officials who are in charge of coordinating a rational response… Thanks for writing this entire series.

  10. After watching Little Hands Wednesday night, I was apprehensive as to the market’s response today. Appropriately so. But, his grasp of the situation is typical of his grasp - or is that what the market is telling us?

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