Things change. That's the truth. But in politics, what often happens is that while things remain the same, one group or another changes the goal so that something that is successful no longer appears so. That is what the media/Dems are trying to do with the corona virus and specifically with testing.
Remember when the pandemic started? There were too few tests. The test kits that the US had in stock from prior to the virus's appearance in this country were unreliable; many gave false positives or negatives. All testing was done by the CDC. We had a system designed for a tiny problem that was suddenly supposed to handle a major outbreak.
So what happened? The President and his task force realized immediately that the best way to proceed was to bring in private industry to deal with the testing issue. In all the testing mess, that was the key move. In the space of two weeks, testing go shifted mostly to private labs like Labcorp and Quest that had the capacity to conduct huge numbers of tests each day. At the same time, new and truly reliable tests were developed by private companies which the FDC and other federal agencies reviewed and approved extremely quickly. Suddenly, the US was testing tens of thousands each day. It didn't matter. Trump got no credit for this. Instead, the media and the Dems just screamed "It's not enough. We need more testing."
Of course, the federal push for testing didn't end at that point. The types of tests were expanded. Abbott came up with a quick test that used the installed base of their testing machines. These tests took 15 minutes or so to get results. The numbers of tests grew and grew. The response from the media and the Dems: "It's not enough. We need more testing."
The Corona Virus Task Force studied the problem for a few more days and realized that the states were not using all the labs available for conducting tests. Some of the governors who complained turned out to be failing at the basic task of getting the labs in their state to handle tests. There was a quick effort to correct the failures of the states and the number of tests soared again. The response from the media and the Dems, however, was the same. "We need more testing."
At that point, attention shifted to reopening the country. How many tests would we need to reopen safely? The "experts" announced that we would need to be able to conduct 4 million tests each month in order to reopen. Then they added 25% as a safety margin and announced that the goal would have to be 5 million tests per month. The President and the Task force said that was something that would be achieved. The media scoffed. They kept talking about the need for testing and more testing. I guess they thought they finally had the President cornered with this impossible task.
But then reopening started and the country is now testing around 400,000 people per day. That's over 12 million per month. Pretty much anyone who wants a test can now get one. The goal set by the "experts" has been doubled. And what's the response from the media and the Dems? You guessed it. "It's not enough. We need more testing." Some, like senator Schumer send out daily tweets that read "Today is May __ and President Trump still has no national strategy for testing." That tweet is so wrong that it is offensive to anyone who understands the truth. It makes Schumer look like a fool. We have plenty of testing.
But where is the media going now? Today, Politico has a long story on testing. Here's a line from the story:
"The United States is now running about 400,000 tests a day, roughly double the number from three weeks ago, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But that’s still far short of the 30 million per week that some experts say is needed to quickly detect new hot spots and contain disease spread."
So some unnamed "experts" now want thirty million tests per week. Keep in mind that since the start of the corona virus pandemic, there have not been thirty million tests conducted worldwide, but supposedly some "experts" want that done each week in the USA alone. These supposed "experts" want about forty percent of the US population tested each month. Now, I understand that there are no actual experts who are realistically calling for that level of testing. It's not something that even makes sense. The point, however, is that the media is now trying to set the bar so high that no one could possibly achieve that goal. Indeed, no sane government would want to try for that level of testing.
I do wonder how many people read about unnamed experts who clearly were made up by the reporters and realize that this is a lie. I'd like to think that it's more than it would have been years back before the prevalence of Fake News became well known.
Remember when the pandemic started? There were too few tests. The test kits that the US had in stock from prior to the virus's appearance in this country were unreliable; many gave false positives or negatives. All testing was done by the CDC. We had a system designed for a tiny problem that was suddenly supposed to handle a major outbreak.
So what happened? The President and his task force realized immediately that the best way to proceed was to bring in private industry to deal with the testing issue. In all the testing mess, that was the key move. In the space of two weeks, testing go shifted mostly to private labs like Labcorp and Quest that had the capacity to conduct huge numbers of tests each day. At the same time, new and truly reliable tests were developed by private companies which the FDC and other federal agencies reviewed and approved extremely quickly. Suddenly, the US was testing tens of thousands each day. It didn't matter. Trump got no credit for this. Instead, the media and the Dems just screamed "It's not enough. We need more testing."
Of course, the federal push for testing didn't end at that point. The types of tests were expanded. Abbott came up with a quick test that used the installed base of their testing machines. These tests took 15 minutes or so to get results. The numbers of tests grew and grew. The response from the media and the Dems: "It's not enough. We need more testing."
The Corona Virus Task Force studied the problem for a few more days and realized that the states were not using all the labs available for conducting tests. Some of the governors who complained turned out to be failing at the basic task of getting the labs in their state to handle tests. There was a quick effort to correct the failures of the states and the number of tests soared again. The response from the media and the Dems, however, was the same. "We need more testing."
At that point, attention shifted to reopening the country. How many tests would we need to reopen safely? The "experts" announced that we would need to be able to conduct 4 million tests each month in order to reopen. Then they added 25% as a safety margin and announced that the goal would have to be 5 million tests per month. The President and the Task force said that was something that would be achieved. The media scoffed. They kept talking about the need for testing and more testing. I guess they thought they finally had the President cornered with this impossible task.
But then reopening started and the country is now testing around 400,000 people per day. That's over 12 million per month. Pretty much anyone who wants a test can now get one. The goal set by the "experts" has been doubled. And what's the response from the media and the Dems? You guessed it. "It's not enough. We need more testing." Some, like senator Schumer send out daily tweets that read "Today is May __ and President Trump still has no national strategy for testing." That tweet is so wrong that it is offensive to anyone who understands the truth. It makes Schumer look like a fool. We have plenty of testing.
But where is the media going now? Today, Politico has a long story on testing. Here's a line from the story:
"The United States is now running about 400,000 tests a day, roughly double the number from three weeks ago, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But that’s still far short of the 30 million per week that some experts say is needed to quickly detect new hot spots and contain disease spread."
So some unnamed "experts" now want thirty million tests per week. Keep in mind that since the start of the corona virus pandemic, there have not been thirty million tests conducted worldwide, but supposedly some "experts" want that done each week in the USA alone. These supposed "experts" want about forty percent of the US population tested each month. Now, I understand that there are no actual experts who are realistically calling for that level of testing. It's not something that even makes sense. The point, however, is that the media is now trying to set the bar so high that no one could possibly achieve that goal. Indeed, no sane government would want to try for that level of testing.
I do wonder how many people read about unnamed experts who clearly were made up by the reporters and realize that this is a lie. I'd like to think that it's more than it would have been years back before the prevalence of Fake News became well known.
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