Trump admin pulls funding for drive-through COVID-19 testing

Loss of testing comes as states expect to see peak hospitalizations in next two weeks.

Read the whole story

 

[ZippyPeanut]

Perhaps it’s because of all the fema course work I’ve done, but I don’t see where it’s the federal government’s job to do what each state should be doing. My understanding of presidential policy directives and incident management has that the locality has jurisdiction and if they become overwhelmed they ask for state assistance. If the state becomes or thinks it will be overwhelmed, it then ask the feds for help. The federal help is not meant to help the entire us the whole time, it’s to help the states temporarily and then the states need to step up and provide the required assistance to their localities. If states can’t manage the testing or feel they need to continue, isn’t that on the states and localities?

You are absolutely right. You don't see. You should do more coursework but it's probably hopeless.

Yeah, sounds like they don't know FEMA stands for "Federal Emergency Management Agency". FEMA's mission from the website is literally "Helping people before, during, and after disasters."

https://www.fema.gov/about-agency

Last time I checked what you wanted is Socialism.... don't see that in the department name.

Unless you are willing to go without public education, police, fire, EMS, roads, then you too are a socialist. Are you willing to give all those up and instead pay a monthly fee to subscribe to them for their services, and let the rest suffer?

SOCIALIST!

If you can't pay, then you deserve to suffer. Fuck you.
(Brought to you by the GOP.)

 

[snakys]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

This article is purely political... Translation: The article says stuff that I don't want to know because it makes my political tribe look bad.

 

[ZippyPeanut]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

Hey, Reso: What do Trump's balls taste like?

 

[naris48]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Oh, that's easy. Just figure out what the right thing to do is, the US is doing the exact opposite.

Much easier.

Anything that makes Trump look good is done immediately with lots of fanfare.
Anything that makes Trump look bad is ignored,
Anything that made Trump look good but then look bad Later, gets abused. and then ignored and never happened.

Go back and listen to his speech where he said 100,000 american could die by august and they did a good job limiting it to that. Trump doesn't seem to understand that this will last until August, and he set the floor for doing a good Job with a number he could understand. but he doesn't understand the concept of 100k americans flooding the hosptials for 2 weeks each and what it means for the health care industry.

Caring for people would make Trump look very good, but clearly that's not happening

Actually, no -- caring for people does not play well to Trump's base!

 

[boxcanyon]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

Well duh, determining among humans who is responsible for what is a political act.

We are discussing what parts of the the country's government is responsible for what spending and operations. That discussion is inherently political.

So duh, of course it is.

 

[SixDegrees]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

And how are states, stretched beyond their budgets, supposed to pay for the testing? That's what that $2 trillion dollars Congress appropriated last week was for.

You did notice, didn't you, that the problem isn't the lack of tests, right? It's the yanking of funding for those tests.

Why are you trying to talk about something else?

 

[snakys]

Take a bow America, you're now number #1 across all categories; :facepalm:

Surely you understand that all else equal the Country that runs the most tests will get back the most positive results, right? And I'm sure you also understand all else equal the largest countries will have the largest results and the US is the third largest.

Surely you understand that your statement makes the U.S. look even worse.

 

[snakys]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

This article is purely political... Translation: The article says stuff that I don't want to know because it makes my political tribe look bad.

You mean if someone feeling sick right now read this article they wouldn't like to know they can get tested faster commercially? Which political side is hiding information? The entire premise of the article that you will be less able to be tested then before is FALSE.

For-profit healthcare just when people are the most desperate. Great solution.

 

[Imbrium]

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

Right...and Health Insurance should have both the Health and Insurance taken out of it.

It's FEMAs job to setup these drive in testing sites. Not fund them.

So set up something the states can't financially support. I don't recall that happening for hurricane relief. "Here's all your FEMA trailers and food kitchens. Now you just have to stock them".

I understand your concern and your feedback is duly noted. But you at least paid the insurance company right??? Last I checked no one was buying Hurricane insurance.

What is this with insurance companies? We're talking about the federal government, FEMA, and their role in disaster management. People pay their insurance, if they are fortunate enough to have it, and they then expect the insurance company to pay for their medical treatment as specified in their policy.

By paying your taxes, you are funding disaster relief, up to what Congress decides to appropriate.

 

[naris48]

I am a conservative but the only reason I would have voted for this idiot is if the alternative had been Bernie. Now that Bernie is history, Trump needs to go, and I have a lot of confidence he will be gone - just not soon enough.

What he probably does not realize is that this and other stupid decisions will come back to bite him in the ass well before the election. His popularity may be up now but that will not last once the whole thing has played out. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Trump is literally letting your fellow Americans die and you seem be aware of that, but if Sanders had gotten the nomination, you'd have been fine with continuing the chaos.

Because "socialism".

Your post also seems to imply you voted for Cheetolini and you've been fine with the aforementioned chaos and criminality this administration has displayed from Day One.

You came this close to being a rational conservative.

There is no such thing as a "rational conservative" -- that's an oxymoron.

 

[Silverback]

So I guess the "Federal" should be removed from FEMA's title? That they should limit the number of states they assist at any one time? "Gee, Florida, sorry about that hurricane. We'd love to help, but California just had a major earthquake. Maybe we can catch you next year!"

Right...and Health Insurance should have both the Health and Insurance taken out of it.

It's FEMAs job to setup these drive in testing sites. Not fund them.

So set up something the states can't financially support. I don't recall that happening for hurricane relief. "Here's all your FEMA trailers and food kitchens. Now you just have to stock them".

I understand your concern and your feedback is duly noted. But you at least paid the insurance company right??? Last I checked no one was buying Hurricane insurance.

True. Because insurance companies call that an "Act Of God" and won't pay. Wouldn't be surprised if COVID-19 already falls under Force Majeure - after all they can lawyer up way longer than your typical claimant can. I spent 18 months fighting for a claim under "Marine - All Risks" where the insurance company was adamant that sinking wasn't covered under, "All Risks".

 

[tucu]

Just checked the stats-

Here is a partial list of countries that have a higher rate of Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 per 1000 population than does the USA-
Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Monaco,Vatican City, Falkland Islands, and Isle of Man.

Most of the countries on that list are Socialist and most of them have universal health care, I think.

Yet each one is doing a worse job than the USA under Trump in dealing with this situation.

Amazing world we live in.

Early days in the US outbreaks. The US has been climbing fast in the ranking of cases per 1M population and will probably be on top by next week.

 

[daveishereagain]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

This article is purely political... Translation: The article says stuff that I don't want to know because it makes my political tribe look bad.

You mean if someone feeling sick right now read this article they wouldn't like to know they can get tested faster commercially? Which political side is hiding information? The entire premise of the article that you will be less able to be tested then before is FALSE.

For-profit healthcare just when people are the most desperate. Great solution.

It's how they think. If you can't pay, and make someone a profit, you're not worth saving. It's standard 'ConservaThink'.

 

[snakys]

I am a conservative but the only reason I would have voted for this idiot is if the alternative had been Bernie. Now that Bernie is history, Trump needs to go, and I have a lot of confidence he will be gone - just not soon enough.

What he probably does not realize is that this and other stupid decisions will come back to bite him in the ass well before the election. His popularity may be up now but that will not last once the whole thing has played out. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Trump is literally letting your fellow Americans die and you seem be aware of that, but if Sanders had gotten the nomination, you'd have been fine with continuing the chaos.

Because "socialism".

Your post also seems to imply you voted for Cheetolini and you've been fine with the aforementioned chaos and criminality this administration has displayed from Day One.

You came this close to being a rational conservative.

There is no such thing as a "rational conservative" -- that's an oxymoron.

Actual conservatives are a dying breed: these days they're right wing reactionaries.

 

[Imbrium]

Just checked the stats-

Here is a partial list of countries that have a higher rate of Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 per 1000 population than does the USA-
Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Monaco,Vatican City, Falkland Islands, and Isle of Man.

Most of the countries on that list are Socialist and most of them have universal health care, I think.

Yet each one is doing a worse job than the USA under Trump in dealing with this situation.

Amazing world we live in.

Almost every single one of them also had far more prevalent testing than the US. We almost certainly have missed the vast majority of cases, having testing only a fraction of a percent of our population. The real number of cases, and deaths, is undoubtedly much higher.

 

[perfectfire]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Is this the first time you've heard of Donald Trump?

 

[tigas]

Just checked the stats-

Here is a partial list of countries that have a higher rate of Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 per 1000 population than does the USA-
Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Monaco,Vatican City, Falkland Islands, and Isle of Man.

Most of the countries on that list are Socialist and most of them have universal health care, I think.

Yet each one is doing a worse job than the USA under Trump in dealing with this situation.

Amazing world we live in.

Look at the stats again. Portugal's death curve is LINEAR (only country in the world that doesn't have an exponential curve) and the rolling average of new cases is dropping. We, and Italy, are going to be the first to go over the hill and turn it around.

Thank the Carnation Revolution for our National Health Service.

 

[daveishereagain]

If you can't pay, and make someone a profit, you're not worth saving. It's standard 'ConservaThink'.

Hyperbole, conservatism's actual thought on the situation would be:
If you can't pay to save yourself, why should someone else be forced to pay to save you?

Well, it's basically saying the same thing using a different point of view.
Your quote would mean that person never heard of insurance companies since that's what they do. But, you're accurate that that never stopped them from saying it. It just shows how clueless they are.

 

[graylshaped]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

This article is purely political... Translation: The article says stuff that I don't want to know because it makes my political tribe look bad.

[I'm ignoring the fact that the poor are most susceptible to this, but they are poor, so fuck 'em]

Your attitude is duly noted.

 

[denemo]

And we still have Bernie Bros who will vote for this idiot (or at least, not vote for Biden) because their guy didn't win.

The amount of Sanders supporters that ended up voting for Trump in 2016 was really small. Smaller than the number of Clinton supporters that voted for McCain over Obama in 2008.

Plus, if you are a Sanders supporter, you can't vote for Trump. He represents the antithesis of everything that Sanders stood for. If you do, then you can't really call yourself a Sanders supporter, can you?

You can, however, sit in a snit and vote for no one. That will be very, very bad.

Trump will not win if we can get people to the polls. Trump knows that and is working hard to prevent it. Even if you have to walk up hill both ways for 12 hours in a snow storm with a bunny suit, we have to get people to vote.

As a Swede I am personally appalled in how your voting system works. Here in Sweden everyone who is 18 years of age on election day, Swedish citizen and have a residence registered in Sweden get their polling card mailed to them. You don't have to register or anything. It just shows up in the mail a few weeks before the election. You then have several options on how to vote: You can mail it in, you can go to special locations where you can do advance voting or you vote on election day which always take place on a Sunday.

Based on how cumbersome and convoluted the voting system is in the US, the fact that voting takes place on a workday, you have voter suppression, gerrymandering and so on I, with my definition of voting and democracy, barely considers the US to be a democracy.

 

[boxcanyon]

Just checked the stats-

Here is a partial list of countries that have a higher rate of Confirmed Cases of Covid-19 per 1000 population than does the USA-
Iceland, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Monaco,Vatican City, Falkland Islands, and Isle of Man.

Most of the countries on that list are Socialist and most of them have universal health care, I think.

Yet each one is doing a worse job than the USA under Trump in dealing with this situation.

Amazing world we live in.

This is absurd. By this metric there are over 150 countries doing better than the US. India has a much lower rate than the US on this metric.

The US is a huge country physically larger than close to all of those countries combined. It has tremendous variations in population density rendering the statistic effectively meaningless for the US. New York City has a higher rate of deaths per 100 people than any other country on the list.

This is an absolutely absurd metric that is only introduced in an pathetic attempt to pretend the US is doing better than other countries when in fact it isn't by any actually meaningful metric.

 

[graylshaped]

Based on how cumbersome and convoluted the voting system is in the US, the fact that voting takes place on a workday, you have voter suppression, gerrymandering and so on I, with my definition of voting and democracy, barely considers the US to be a democracy.

[I wasn't paying attention when Covfece authored the largest transfer of wealth to wealthy shareholders in the history of the country]

You sure you're up for this debate? You're kind of flailing away right now.

 

[Stuart Frasier]

Based on how cumbersome and convoluted the voting system is in the US, the fact that voting takes place on a workday, you have voter suppression, gerrymandering and so on I, with my definition of voting and democracy, barely considers the US to be a democracy.

[I wasn't paying attention when Covfece authored the largest transfer of wealth to wealthy shareholders in the history of the country]

You sure you're up for this debate? You're kind of flailing away right now.

That jackwagon can't figure out if he is a bernie-bro troll or an alt-right troll. I suspect more than one person is using the account.

 

[naris48]

"The spokesperson framed the withdrawal of funding as allowing states to dictate their own priorities, telling NPR, 'The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most.'"

What remains unclear is why the federal funding for these drive-through tests inhibited states' flexibility and autonomy. Was it like, "You get funding for drive-through testing, but you have to give up your autonomy."?

I can't help but wonder if these tests are generating data that's somehow making Trump look bad.

"tests are generating data that's somehow making Trump look bad"

nailed it.

Hmm...

This just in:

"More than 2,000 additional Pennsylvania residents have tested positive for COVID-19, moving the statewide total of coronavirus cases past 18,000, the state Department of Health announced Thursday."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... BlogHeader

I wonder if the Trump administration is trying to flatten the curve of data. I mean, if more and more data comes in quickly, and there's a a fast peak of information showing that the administration ain't doing such a good job with this, then maybe if they slow down the spread of data, the information curve will flatten and soften the blow.

That’s exactly what they’re doing.

It’s going to be hard to flatten the morgue saturation rate, though I’m sure they’ll figure out how to make that problem go away too.

Build Soylent factories and feed the poor?

This administration has no desire to feed the poor.

 

[daveishereagain]

Based on how cumbersome and convoluted the voting system is in the US, the fact that voting takes place on a workday, you have voter suppression, gerrymandering and so on I, with my definition of voting and democracy, barely considers the US to be a democracy.

[I wasn't paying attention when Covfece authored the largest transfer of wealth to wealthy shareholders in the history of the country]

You sure you're up for this debate? You're kind of flailing away right now.

That jackwagon can't figure out if he is a bernie-bro troll or an alt-right troll. I suspect more than one person is using the account.

That, or someone trolling from St, Petersburg.

 

[ZippyPeanut]

"The spokesperson framed the withdrawal of funding as allowing states to dictate their own priorities, telling NPR, 'The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most.'"

What remains unclear is why the federal funding for these drive-through tests inhibited states' flexibility and autonomy. Was it like, "You get funding for drive-through testing, but you have to give up your autonomy."?

I can't help but wonder if these tests are generating data that's somehow making Trump look bad.

"tests are generating data that's somehow making Trump look bad"

nailed it.

Hmm...

This just in:

"More than 2,000 additional Pennsylvania residents have tested positive for COVID-19, moving the statewide total of coronavirus cases past 18,000, the state Department of Health announced Thursday."

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-n ... BlogHeader

I wonder if the Trump administration is trying to flatten the curve of data. I mean, if more and more data comes in quickly, and there's a a fast peak of information showing that the administration ain't doing such a good job with this, then maybe if they slow down the spread of data, the information curve will flatten and soften the blow.

That’s exactly what they’re doing.

It’s going to be hard to flatten the morgue saturation rate, though I’m sure they’ll figure out how to make that problem go away too.

Build Soylent factories and feed the poor?

This administration has no desire to feed the poor.

Yes they do: they need servants to help feed them.

 

[numerobis]

Take a bow America, you're now number #1 across all categories; :facepalm:

Surely you understand that all else equal the Country that runs the most tests will get back the most positive results, right? And I'm sure you also understand all else equal the largest countries will have the largest results and the US is the third largest.

Definitely understand that.

Despite that, the US *still* has the most positive results.

 

[numerobis]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

Hey, Reso: What do Trump's balls taste like?

Matzah?

 

[Veritas super omens]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Fall of Rome 2.0

panem et circenses while people die, starve, etc. It has been happening for years, COVID just lit the fire for our Nero.

completely off topic: How does panem become "bread" in english, but retains that "pan" root in every other latin derived language? Even in Japanese of all things, which loves to borrow from english!

The simple answer is that English is not a language. It is three languages wearing a trenchcoat.

....you forgot about the part where English lures other languages into dark alleys, to mug them and then go through their pockets for loose grammar.

Shaka, the walls fell...

 

[naris48]

As an outsider, I just don't understand what the USA as a country is doing.

Fall of Rome 2.0

panem et circenses while people die, starve, etc. It has been happening for years, COVID just lit the fire for our Nero.

completely off topic: How does panem become "bread" in english, but retains that "pan" root in every other latin derived language? Even in Japanese of all things, which loves to borrow from english!

English was NOT derived form latin, sure it was influenced heavily by latin, but it was not derived from it like spanish, french, romanian, etc.

 

[numerobis]

This article is purely political. It is complaining about the end of government sponsored testing program which takes a week or more. There is not a real health reason to complain about this when normal commercial labs now have testing nationally.

Right from the Quest webpage:

Quest Diagnostics is receiving COVID-19 specimens and performing testing. Testing is available nationally. Turnaround time for COVID-19 testing is typically 3-4 days

Well duh, determining among humans who is responsible for what is a political act.

We are discussing what parts of the the country's government is responsible for what spending and operations. That discussion is inherently political.

So duh, of course it is.

How dare you let politics intrude in a discussion about policy.