A study in failure

From "disband the CDC" goes mainstream: the reflexivity of the overton window by el gato malo.  He has a list of all the things CDC did wrong in responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.  Which is just about everything.  

I'd construct a slightly different list.  Here is mine.

They did not follow their already established pandemic protocols.  Protocols based on decades of experience and research.  Instead they developed policy on the fly and without empirical grounding.

They did not acknowledge that mortality rates were negligible for those under 70 years of age.

They did not target their response to those at risk (over 70 and with co-morbidities).

They pursued testing strategies with unreliable and over-sensitive tests.

They attempted to implement a track-and-trace strategy for a virus that spread too quickly for that to be effective.  

They were extremely late in acknowledging that Covid-19 spread via aerosol transmission.  

They failed to test the novel mRNA vaccines sufficiently to detect the rates of complication, failing to establish a full picture of benefits and costs.

They failed, and continue to fail, to establish clear standards for critical definitions and measurements such as natural immunity, die from Covid-19 versus died with Covid-19, asymptomatic spread, etc.  

They asserted without evidence that vaccines were 100% effective, would prevent transmission, and would provide enduring immunity.  

They endorsed a strategy of lockdowns without any evidence as to the effectiveness of that strategy and ignoring the evidence for countervailing individual and community harm.  

They endorsed a strategy for population protection via cloth masks which were known not to provide such protection against transmission.  

They advanced policies such as 6-foot distancing that had no evidentiary basis.  

They never examined the trade-off consequences between their policy recommendations as required of any public policy decision.  They frequently exaggerated benefits and ignored costs.  

They never established a reliable mechanism for tracking negative consequences to the untried and experimental vaccines.  

They ignored evidence of a two week window of vulnerability between the first and second vaccinations when infections and deaths spiked.  These infections and deaths were treated as unvaccinated patients rather than partially vaccinated patients, masking the negative consequences.

They continued administering vaccinations based on the original variants long past the variant evolution.

They recommended boosters without adequate testing for safety and effectiveness.

They recommended vaccinations for children without adequate evidence for safety or effectiveness.  

They supported school closures and masking when there was no evidence that those policies would slow the spread.

They encouraged suspension of Constitutional rights on the basis of public health but without any evidence that those abrogation of rights would actually improve health outcomes.

They violated bodily autonomy by mandating vaccinations which were neither well studied nor evaluated on the balance of risks and benefits.

They failed to track the social, mental health, physical health, educational and economic consequences of their policies.  Consequences which have been legion and significant.

They have refused to conduct basic measures of success such as excess all causes mortality rate measurements.  

They sought to restrict free speech in an effort to sustain their flawed policies, especially in the face of emerging evidence against those policies.  These efforts at propaganda and speech suppression included targeting individual Americans and groups and included efforts to deplatform and harm their livelihoods.  

I am sure I am missing some items but it is such a reasonably large number of consistent failures, it becomes difficult to keep track.

It warrants a complete overhaul of the NIH, CDC, and FDA.  But judging by the mishandling so far of the Monkeypox outbreak, it appears that so far nothing has been learned, no accountability, exercised, and no improvement in capability has occurred.

We don't need to abolish the CDC but we certainly need it to be radically reformed and improved and serving the interests of the American people rather than the establishment interests.