Recent experience with SARS meant East Asian countries had procedures in place, took the threat seriously and that the general population did likewise.
I know a few people that were in the far east during the SARS-COV1 outbreak it scared the living shit out them. Those countries including China reacted swiftly and forcibly once they were aware of what they were up against.
Meanwhile in the Trump Administration was actively blocking attempts to perform surveillance by public health authorities as recently as Feb 27th.
> State health officials joined Chu in asking the CDC and Food and Drug Administration to waive privacy rules and allow clinical tests in a research lab, citing the threat of significant loss of life. The CDC and FDA said no. "We felt like we were sitting, waiting for the pandemic to emerge," Chu told the Times. "We could help. We couldn't do anything." They held off for a couple of weeks, but on Feb. 25, Chu and her colleagues "began performing coronavirus tests, without government approval,"
That’s on the FDA more than the White House, though obviously that’s where the buck stops. The FDA being incompetent or obstructive during a pandemic seems less than ideal.
“The White House considered issuing an executive order greatly expanding the use of investigational drugs against the new coronavirus, but met with objections from Food and Drug Administration scientists who warned it could pose unneeded risks to patients, according to a senior government official.
The idea to expand testing of drugs and other medical therapies was strongly opposed by the FDA’s senior scientists this week, the official said, and represented the most notable conflict between the FDA and the White House in recent memory.”
So federal regulators (not Trump) told researchers not to test samples from a research study without the patients' permission?
Seems reasonable to me. They should have gotten permission from the participants instead of asking regulators to waive patient privacy.
> as part of a research project into the flu, she and a team of researchers had been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms throughout the Puget Sound region.
> To repurpose the tests for monitoring the coronavirus, they would need the support of state and federal officials. But nearly everywhere Dr. Chu turned, officials repeatedly rejected the idea,
