FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeremy Mohler, In the Public Interest Communications Director, 301-752-8413, jmohler@inthepublicinterest.org
Donald Cohen, executive director of In the Public Interest, a national nonprofit that studies public goods and services, said:
“The Trump administration refusing to use the World Health Organization’s (WHO) test and instead outsourcing to two corporations amounts to privatization that is costing the country precious time.”
“We need to take the word ‘public’ in ‘public health crisis’ seriously. The private market can’t create and protect the public goods we all rely on—individually and as a nation. It isn’t providing adequate health care and testing. It isn’t providing paid sick leave to many workers.”
“If coronavirus is exposing anything, it’s that we’re all in this together. Protecting the public health of all us requires protecting the health of each of us, without exception.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
. . . the situation also exposes the limitations of capitalism when it comes to the public good (these are directly opposed at the foundational level); and the great differences between
(a) private/corporate (and capitalist) foundations and
(b) public institutions and interests that flow directly from a well-written and implemented Constitution and its system of laws. CBK
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Trump is in the business of cutting of his nose to spite his face. CBK
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I have searched for a link or source for this post and cannot find one. I want to know the names of the companies that are involved in this operation.
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https://www.inthepublicinterest.org/about-us/
Connected to: https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/about/supporters
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Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President of the United States, Mikey Dense:
As I was telling Mother last night just before our night-night prayers, it really has been the privilege of a lifetime to work under you, Mr. President, and to see your sharp mind in action, pointing out that by this week the number of cases would be down to five and that this was all just a Democrat hoax. Your steady and very large hand enabled us to put off having to do anything until this spread or may not have spread, depending how you are feeling today, throughout the entire nation, which could be a challenge, of course, but isn’t that the point, Mr. President, that America has always been up to its challenges?
With faith in God, and your guidance, Mr. President, how can we fail? And though we might have a little rough patch, all these business leaders behind me here, brought together by your wisdom, Mr. President, are going to do their very best to rise to the occasion, under your leadership, and to make as much money as they possibly can off this while delivering whatever is necessary to serve the interests of the richest Americans.
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In the Public Interest is headed by Donald Cohen. It does research and advocacy against privatization. I have published their work many times.
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Humanists: “There’s no time to waste. We have a crisis!”
Capitalists: “NEVER waste a good crisis!”
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Actually it was democrat Rahm Emanuel that said “never let a good crisis go to waste”, and that is exactly what leftist are doing.
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What are “leftists” doing?
Please explain.
Do you think the coronavirus is a hoax?
How did “leftists” convince other nations to react to COVID19?
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Rendo I think you mean me (CBK) when you say leftist, at least in a general sense. So let me say this: I am very unhappy about the virus and had nothing to do with its onslaught.
That said, and in a very narrow political vein, I am quite glad if it puts a cloud over Trump and his foggy-headed capitalist sleeze-bags who apparently, like you, cannot see anything outside of that VERY NARROW political vein in a context of all of the other important “veins” that you apparently cannot see. (That makes you a hack.)
I have said before that, after all that has happened at the behest of Trump’s megalomania and socio-pathology, and that has been totally ignored by the “shoot-yourself-in-the-foot” Trump base, they’ll probably need to see the jackboots on their driveway demanding their children to finally understand that they are being duped.
It seems that the virus is the equivalent of the arrival of those jackboots. But please know that I would not trade a single virus death for one reformed Duper. CBK
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Jacquilenhardt5598,
Don’t you know that leftists engineered the virus and are spreading it to destroy mankind? It’s all their fault. And I read that the virus will actual refuse to attack leftists because it’s made arrangements for kickbacks from the Democrats.
Yes, jacquilenhardt5598, your statement reeks of exquisite intelligence and critical thinking.
Einstein, move over! Jacquilenhardt5598, how did you get to be so well versed and educated? I wanna be like you!!!!
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. . . a trolling hack . . . . CBK
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Yes. First President Hussein Obama put chemicals in the water to turn high-school kids transgender, and now we have the Democrat Coronavirus Hoax.
Oh, and “Unborn Baby Sings Like Elvis.” Next on Fox News.
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This aphorism was used as the title of a medical article in 1976. So, Emanuel did not originate it.
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Catherine King,
I was being facetious!! I too would not wish a Corona death upon anyone. I sincerely apologize if I caused confusion.
I am a loud and proud leftist. I don’t believe in labels, but compared to the American milieu, I would be considered a leftist. I believe in redistribution of wealth and power in order to pay for the public commons, such as SS and universal healthcare, childcare, public transportation, public schools, and nominal cost higher education that is academic or vocational. I also believe in taxing the rich more than those in lower income brackets, and I despise the electoral college, redistricting, and gerrymandering. I wish unions would grow in all sectors, private and public.
America’s size is its weakness. Big, clunky, disjointed, fragmented, and isolated . . . . and the people of all camps are duped by a magnificently functioning and increasingly robust propaganda machine that the elite have designed and used to control and oppress the people bloodlessly into a capitalist, fascist state.
No hacking from me, Ms. King . . . Just disgust and anger, just fright and motivation, just a reality check about how politically and geo-politically illiterate most Americans are, which is why we have Trump and why our social safety nets have been weakened over the last 40 years.
I am 56. I have been paying for other people’s SS for years. Will I get mine and Medicare by the time I am 67? Or will it have been privatized? Reduced? Means tested? . . . .
Please don’t conflate factitiousness with hacking trolls. I’m in your camp, and the tent is – or should be – large enough . . . .
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R. Rendo I appreciate your explanation. CBK
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Rendo and CBK: Concerning labels, I was just thinking the other day that we have significantly moved what is considered “moderate” far to the right of what it was in the 50s. A moderate in this day in time suggests that there might be a role for the federal government beyond national defense and trade policy. For those on the far right, anny suggestion that the federal government can help us through a domestic crisis is proof of being on the distant left of political thought.
The odd effect of this ludicrous definition is that young people often see themselves as socialists, which used to mean people who were opposed to private ownership of means of production. Now it means anyone who believes the government should provide some sort of social service to citizens. Schools? Socialism. Public roads? Socialism.
Ridiculous.
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Actually, this sentiment was first expressed by Milton Friedman, the free-market fundamentalist who advised Kissinger & Nixon on how to take advantage of the CIA coup in Chili.
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No need to thank me, Catherine King. I know we are in the same camp. I hope you are safe and healthy . . . .
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RR So far, safe and healthy, but then I read the below in the Huffington Post this morning and know that the nightmare we are all living in is not over yet:
“TRUMP’S HATEFUL VIRUS TWEET U-TURNS MOMENT OF PRAISE President Donald Trump sent a xenophobic tweet Monday evening, noting that he plans to bail out airlines and other industries ‘that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus.’ Hours earlier, Trump won faint praise for a White House news conference on the coronavirus outbreak that finally offered a relatively sober assessment, though he failed to impose any meaningful restrictions. But the president unleashed the real Trump online not long after. [HuffPost]”
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I found it here, just now:
http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/the-trump-administration-privatized-coronavirus-testing-and-now-the-u-s-is-paying-the-price/
And THANK YOU for helping get this public.
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Trump is the SCAM and a THREAT to National Security. He needs to go.
And yeah .. right, Jared Kushner is doing research.
I want to see his and the dump gang’s offshore bank accounts.
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It is demonstrating that we need public policies supported by a prepared public sector. We have a number of private insurance carriers of health insurance, but their main goal is profit, not public policy or public health. We would have been far better prepared for this pandemic if Trump had not cut funding to our public health system.
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Meet the “scientific” think tank, often quoted by climate change deniers, that downplayed the effects of COVID-19. They claimed it wouldn’t be any worse than the flu.
DeSmog blog exposes the think tanks spreading climate change misinformation. You’ll recognize several of these think tanks as corporate education proponents as well.
https://www.desmogblog.com/
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President Trump outsources his cognitive functioning to a gerbil on methamphetamines.
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“Secretary Betsy DeVos
From day one,
@realDonaldTrump
has taken an aggressive, unprecedented approach to combating coronavirus. His decisive actions, including the additional steps announced tonight, will help prevent the spread of this virus and keep more students, parents and communities safe.”
No work for the public or schools- instead all of the Trump employees are busy flattering their leader, Donald Trump.
It’s appalling. How do formerly self-respecting adults get to the point where they’ll happily debase themselves like this? Creepy levels of worship and obedience.
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Well, almost everything I do is cancelled – no more volunteering (today’s mobile food pantry was my last “good deed”, Church is closed, book clubs cancelled, no more lunches with my friends. My trips to a couple of conferences next month will be rescheduled.
I guess I’ll stay at home and read my books, binge watch TV, blog, and call my friends/family to keep in touch. While at the moment I’m addicted to the news, I’m not foolish enough to listen to the President. Governor Cuomo has been a steadying voice, still it’s disturbing that simple temperature checks aren’t being done to travelers returning on buses, trains, and planes. Hopefully they will have more tests soon (no sense looking back but this is an embarrassment) from whatever source. Yes, even Kits from WHO and other countries – and I hope those who are taking advantage of us to make money get their due.
At this point we need to trust our local officials. We can also contact our legislatures at both the local, state, and national levels to “do the right thing”. After all, we now have the time.
Stay safe and pray for those who are on the front lines, like our health care workers, that they can also stay healthy as they do the grunt work while our President recites conflicting platitudes.
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Ironically, I have Jury Duty starting March 23rd.
I’d like to point as as a Progressive (lefty?) that Prisoners are People, too, with loved ones. Just think how dangerous it is to be in close quarters at a prison. Death by Corona should not be on our conscious, especially for minor offenders (I’m especially thinking of the Erie County Holding Center, where individuals are held awaiting trial which already has a bunch of unnecessary deaths due to overcrowding and lack of care).
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Although I trust the source ITPI, I don’t know how to put this info together with for example this fact-check on a related claim made by Biden in the Sun debate:
https://khn.org/news/biden-falsely-blames-trump-administration-for-rejecting-who-coronavirus-test-kits-that-were-never-offered/
Perhaps more context is needed.
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Which two companies are we talking about?
We have some research hospitals here in Memphis, and they complained that while they could easily develop a test but they are not given authorization.
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It will be interesting to see if this incident changes the conversation about the role of the Federal Government I public health. We are experiencing the effect of forty years of the suggestion that the Feds are the source of all our problems. A real CDC, robustly funded by a responsible government, might have lined up all the places that would have produced plenty of testing kits and organized sites for testing.
Most of us recall our trip to the local school to drink the polio vaccine. We recall how seamless that experience was in our life. The Federal Government can function. Let us use it.
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RT The federal government has been bashed, in systematic fashion for a long time by those in big business who despise regulation, want to consumerize EVERYTHING, and limit everyone’s horizon of thought to greedy capitalism. They’ve pushed that propaganda for so long that even those whom it protects (from corporate/big business) have adopted a “I hate the government” mindset.
At present, it looks like a win for the propaganda machine in that very big democracy. CBK
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We face a national crisis and we need national leadership. Not state by state answers. The virus doesn’t respect borders.
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Yeah, some people and businesses think, they should have the freedom to decide how to handle this pandemic. No, this is like drunk driving: carelessness of one individual can endanger the lives of many others.
My son just started an internship yesterday, and he tells me that there are 30 people in an office, people are shaking hands, and there is no social distancing at all. When one worker asked the boss about this, the boss replied that they will make sure sick people will keep their distance. This reply is just wrong and ignorant on so many levels.
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Have you seen the articles out there regarding issues with the CDC and WHO?…. It is sobering that some aspects of their work may have been politicized over the years and even incompetant in some areas. Not sure what parts of that could be affecting the current coronavirus situation, but perhaps that is why Trump needed to go outside of the CDC and WHO for test kits. I read there was a problem with the tests giving some false positives?? A quick search on “CDC corruption” in a non-google search… haven’t tried a google search, I’m seeing 2013, 2014, 2017 articles on different issues in a quick glance. Similar with search on “World Health Organization corruption”. Article here also speaks to the general situation globally…. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/01/08/global-health-care-corruption.aspx
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I trust CDC and WHO a lot faster than Trump and Pence, who don’t trust science and treat it as a belief rather than evidence.
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100% agree with RT up there at 9:37a.m. 3/17. This is the place to focus the argument, not on capitalism vs socialism.
In the ’50’s we still had well-regulated capitalism and a thriving public sector. That’s illustrated by the speedy and efficient delivery of the polio vaccine once it was developed and successfully trialled.
However the fed’s role in quarantine is restricted to measures limiting transmission in & out of the country, and over state borders, implemented by exec order of the pres. Such measures should have been taken earlier by this admin. Arguably they would have been had not this admin previously gutted the pandemic response team and cut funding to CDC: the pressure on the admin to act would have been higher and earlier. States bear the responsibility for protecting their citizens, have much broader legal authority, and needn’t wait for fed action. However they surely would have acted earlier, and more of them more forcefully, (a)with timely and comprehensive guidance from well-funded fed public health orgs and (b)without the foot-dragging built into polarized natl legislature.
That’s about efforts to contain and mitigate. I remain skeptical of claims about privatization interfering with test devpt. It’s not like there was some cheap testkit out there in Dec being freely distributed by WHO. From what I’ve read that’s not how test devpt works. And WHO was reaching out only to countries lacking facilities needed to develop them anyway (not us). I gather that scientists are cooperating hourly and globally on the technicalities. What’s far more likely is that we failed to immediately dispense fed grants to test labs nationwide– which gets right back to fund-gutted fed public health orgs & constipated legislators.
I really don’t get criticism of getting Quest and LabCorp poised for massive distribution. The two combined serve most of insured citizens; that’s the distribution system we’ve got, & that’s where we have to start. All states need to exercise their authority immediately to override any legal glitches in making the tests free to all comers regardless of insurance type or whether they’re insured.
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“I really don’t get criticism of getting Quest and LabCorp poised for massive distribution. The two combined serve most of insured citizens; that’s the distribution system we’ve got, & that’s where we have to start.”
Why? Is that the fastest, cheapest way? As I wrote earlier, here is Memphis, there are a couple research hospitals which could have developed the test quickly. But no, they wouldn’t get permission. As a result, even people with clear symptoms couldn’t get tested.
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I see I have made a stupid mistake in thinking that test devpt and test distribution are two separate operations– sorry!
But I find no support online for ITPI’s “The Trump admin refusing to use the WHO test and instead outsourcing to two corporations…” In fact yesterday’s NYT article makes it clear both parts of the claim are false. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/17/health/coronavirus-tests-who.html
“…Mr Biden’s assertion that the Trump admin refused tests offered by the WHO appears to be wrong. The WHO does not sell tests to wealthy countries, which usually prefer to make their own.”
And, as in other OECD countries, tests are being developed by multiple sources [NYT: “Dr Birx answered that tests in the US were now being made by many producers, which is correct. Differing diagnostic tests are now made by state labs, medical school labs, and private companies like Thermo Fisher as an example.”
A 2/5 article on LabCorp test efforts mentions some other lab’s tests coming online, and gives a window into the approval process: “the FDA guidance issued on Feb 29th allows high-complexity, CLIA-certified labs to immediately perform tests they’ve developed and validated while they are pursuing Emergency Use Authorization … [the FDA guidance] stipulates that high-complexity commercial, academic and govt labs that develop and plan to use their SARS-COv-2 tests must validate their tests and then notify FDA. They then may begin using the test but must also submit a completed EUA request to the FDA within 15 days.”
https://www.360dx.com/clinical-lab-management/commercial-labs-step-coronavirus-test-efforts-after-fda-guidance#.XnJH_XD3arV
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This ProPublica article was published 2/28 then updated 2/29 w/info on revised FDA guidance. It explains a little better how [CDC mainly?] slowed down our testing devpt. https://www.propublica.org/article/cdc-coronavirus-covid-19-test
I still don’t quite get how it all works, but clearly we effed up. One way or another we lost 5 – 6 weeks & it certainly seems to be poor judgment w/n govt bureaucracy.
My floating skepticism has mainly been a function of instinctive mistrust of too-simple-sounding conclusions that could just reflect political bias… Overgeneralized [media] finger-pointing may help the Dem pres election or OTOH could backfire, seen as shameless attempt to divide instead of uniting in a crisis. But I look forward to investigative reporting that’s surely in the works on this, the sooner the better. Max transparency is reqd to keep things moving in right direction & build understanding of best practice going forward.
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bethree5 This goes way down to the bottom of the political order–that is, to the conflict between public and private, between (1) government by capitalist principles VS (2) government by principles of the COMMON GOOD of/by/for the people.
Kuschner, our “behind-the-scenes” manipulator, and many if not most Republicans, apparently embrace (#1).
“It’s not the federal government’s job . . . . ”
My nightmare last night was about how Trump, his family, and his cohorts are going to capitalize on the virus, as well as use it to consolidate power. CBK
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Jared’s brother owns the company in charge of the Covid-19 testing. https://www.lancastercourier.com/2020/03/16/jared-kushners-family-is-set-to-make-a-cool-fortune-off-the-coronavirus-pandemic/?fbclid=IwAR05zgqH9jW_NveLILljq2VDlG4HQtEfBthW7Yb-0gp6UhFUI53lSXGX_V4
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Jared? Why doesn’t that surprise me. The next thing to wonder about, and not be surprised by, is how that’s connected with the delayed testing. CBK
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Where do you get Oscar Health as “the company in charge of the Covid-19 testing”, did I miss something? This is just a commercial website search tool.
Granted, its [Kushner family’s] scramble to rescue a floundering quasi-fraudulent enterprise through preying off the crisis is repugnant. So is the attempt to inject itself between panicked citizens & what should be free govtl services [tip-off: Birx’s use of a chart/ lingo borrowed from their enterprise]– thanks, Trump nepotism.
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It’s that Joel Klein, noted education expert, is a high-level executive at Kushner’s OSCAR.
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