The Trump Virus: Why exactly did Trump reject the WHO test?

[DonaldsRump]

Does anyone have details on why exactly Trump rejected the WHO test for COVID-19? Is it really true that the US could have had this in January 2020???

Both of those pieces will send Trump to a nasty defeat in November 2020. There is NO WAY out for him if he really could have taken the WHO test and distributed it throughout the US in February. This incredible failure to act will doom so many people.

God alive, it's March 17 and no one seems to know where the US tests are. How could Trump have done this?

[NewJeffCT]

1. He was looking for a way to scam money off of it

and, it would be harder with WHO kits?

That, or he wanted to keep the numbers artificially low and rely on his control of the media to support him

[PubliusEnigma]

2. He had an angle. Who is making the tests we haven't gotten yet? Follow the money. Even in a Pandemic

[Mike 03]

10. The Kushners, too.

At least, according to Snopes, the veracity of this claim is "mixture"

Does Jared Kushner’s Brother Own a Company Involved in COVID-19 Testing?
Oscar, a digital health-insurance startup that recently set up a service for users to find COVID-19 testing centers, was co-founded by Joshua Kushner.

What's True
Jared Kushner’s brother, Joshua, is co-founder of the health insurance start-up Oscar, which recently released an online tool to locate COVID-19 testing centers in some areas. At least in the past, Jared Kushner has had a financial interest in Oscar.

What's False
Oscar is not involved in the actual process of COVID-19 testing or in the manufacturing of such a test. Oscar created a website — open to the public — that screens users to see if they qualify for a test and then provides a list of testing sites nearby.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kushner-oscar-covid/

[stopdiggin]

18. that's some pretty weak tea

"follow the money" has to be looking at bigger fish than this ...
(or else close shop and just go home)

[Maeve]

4. Not exactly, according to PolitiFact

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/16/joe-biden/biden-falsely-says-trump-administration-rejected-w/

"No discussions occurred between WHO and CDC about WHO providing COVID-19 tests to the United States," said WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris. "This is consistent with experience since the United States does not ordinarily rely on WHO for reagents or diagnostic tests because of sufficient domestic capacity."

Biden said, "The World Health Organization offered, offered the testing kits that they have available and to give it to us now. We refused them. We did not want to buy them."

Biden has a point that the U.S. did not attempt to use the WHO test. But the U.S. would never have needed complete kits from WHO. Even if it had adopted the WHO testing approach, it already had access to all the necessary materials.

WHO said there was never any talk of WHO sending testing kits to the United States.

Biden’s words leave out other important context and information.

The U.S. chose to use its own test, rather than the one circulated by WHO. Other nations, such as China, Japan and France, also developed their own tests. Multiple public health experts said that is not unusual.

Biden’s emphasis on WHO offering kits is simply wrong. We rate this claim Mostly False.

[DonaldsRump]

6. That makes sense, up to around March 1

By that time, he could have WHO testing as a stop gap, given what was happening around the world COUPLED with his failure to have real testing at American air/sea/land ports accepting international passengers.

There is NO WAY this is defensible.

[stopdiggin]

9. the administrations testing response WAS indefensible

(and remains so) .. but the WHO tests played very little part in that massive and criminal failure.

[bigbrother05]

5. He couldn't buy it exclusive for USA

Tried to corner the market while people got sick.

[dumbcat]

7. I read somewhere

and I don't remember where, that the South Korea government found that the WHO test kits were providing almost 30% false negatives. They stopped using them and developed their own. I also heard some collaboration of this on a private message board I belong to that has a lot of old cronies from the army intel world. That may be why the US was reluctant to use them.

[stopdiggin]

8. post #4 has a fact check

apparently it is not unusual for the U.S. (and plenty of other countries) to develop their own tests. The "refused WHO" is basically misleading. The U.S. testing response has been shamefully inadequate .. and deserves serious criticism and investigation .. but the WHO test kits are not the issue.

It behooves us to know what we're talking about (in all cases) .. but particularly in dealing out (absolutely warranted) scorched earth criticism. There's very little doubt that the Trump administration is responsible for citizen deaths (perhaps many) .. but that case needs to be made based on solid evidence, not misleading tag lines and hashtags.

[lame54]

11. It's not unusual?...

That doesn't mean this wasnt an extremely bad call in this case

Trump fucked up

Why couldn't we take the test to kick it off and then still develop our own

[stopdiggin]

12. because criticizing a decision that is somewhat standard practice

at the time (even if it turns out to be dead wrong in retrospect) .. is hindsight .. generally regarded as unwarranted and prejudiced .. and makes you look stupid, and considerably less credible.

There's plenty of warranted criticism to lay on (as stated in my post). Stick to that.
read the fact check (#4)

[lame54]

13. #4 fair enough - now read #6

[stopdiggin]

15. did. and responded.

the March date is well after the CDC had developed (and shipped) their own test kits .. per normal protocol. Revisiting the WHO decision at that point ... Frankly I didn't see that the post made a lot of sense.

[DonaldsRump]

29. And I have responded at 16 n/t

[DonaldsRump]

16. The fact is that the US was WAY behind those other countries

It could have used WHO's as a stopgap. Today is March 17. Where exactly are these "Made in the USA" tests?

Hindsight is 20/20, but this is indeed inexcusable, in addition to the many other things that have or have not happened.

[stopdiggin]

19. as I said the testing in the U.S. has been indefensible

and bordering on criminal. And the WHO test had little or nothing to do with it .. at any point in the arc. It's a blind alley.

[DonaldsRump]

23. Based on a Politifact article?

Last edited Tue Mar 17, 2020, 06:07 PM - Edit history (1)

If you have something else that you're willing to talk about, let us know, but I am not willing to concede the WHO point based on Politifact alone.

I've seen in just the last few minutes on DU the accuracy rates of the WHO test ranging from 70% to 50%. Do you know of any sources that are citing this.

I am not saying you're wrong, I am simply asking for something specific to say this is wrong. I am a lawyer, so I do have a wee bit of training in making allegations stick. However, I am not a doctor or a scientist (about as far from one as you can get!).

Take a look at those that are re-writing history that is unfolding as we speak: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213117218

To stop this kind of revisionism, if we have them by the jugular on any SPECIFIC part of this, we do not let go. However, if it is flat out wrong, I'm willing to be persuaded. I just haven't seen it yet.

[stopdiggin]

24. not entirely on the Politifact piece

(although I think it is reasonable in it's coverage and conclusions) This largely because it falls in line with a number of other things I've read recently. You can continue to hold up the WHO testing as one of the cardinal sins in what was clearly a systematic failure on testing if you choose. Suit yourself. I just don't happen to think it plays much of a role in a train wreck with a lot of other flying parts.

I just read the following tonight. Found it a fair overview; interesting and accessible.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/17/21184015/coronavirus-testing-pcr-diagnostic-point-of-care-cdc-techonology

[DonaldsRump]

25. Article at the link is good, but this is far more on point

from MSNBC/Raw Story:

Dr. Joseph Fair, an MSNBC science contributor, accused White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx of telling the “opposite” of the truth about the accuracy of the World Health Organization’s coronavirus tests.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/msnbc-science-analyst-destroys-dr-deborah-birx-for-telling-opposite-of-truth-on-faulty-cdc-tests/

[MFGsunny]

32. + 1000 n/t

[stopdiggin]

34. there are reports of "inaccuracies" (false + and -) in BOTH

the WHO and the CDC tests. Fair is being inaccurate or misleading if he is attempting to claim one was good and one was bad (and I'm not real clear if, in fact, that was the point he was trying to make). But further .. the initial reason that the CDC decided to go with its own test rather than WHO had nothing to do with inaccuracy issues .. but rather that it was standard practice for CDC to do so.

And .. clearly the desire for accurate testing (be it internal or external) is a strong consideration .. and has contributed to some hesitation on who and what is approved. But that is NOT the story with the WHO vs CDC testing.

[DonaldsRump]

35. And we are back to the same point

By March 1, with nothing working, they could have AT LEAST gotten WHO tests out as a stop gap until they got the "more accurate" "made in the USA" tests.

Fair is stating that Brix is being misleading. Very clearly.

[DonaldsRump]

36. These say it all

It's now March 18: WHERE ARE THE TESTS
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213124252

Allowing them to squirm out of it because of the "standard operating procedure" is nonsense. At some stage, MONTHS into this crisis, something had to be done. It also gives Trump a chance to blame BHO, and that will NEVER happen.

Unless you allow for an "SOP" defense/excuse. This is patently unacceptable given the length of time that has transpired.

This is also circulating and says more than I could ever say:

[rockfordfile]

17. Trump wanted to let this get worst by letting the virus spread. Trump is to blame

[stopdiggin]

21. Trump, and administration, certainly bollocked this to a high degree.

Probably including a certain amount of negligence and self interest.
The statement that, "Trump wanted to let this get worst by letting the virus spread" .. is incendiary, and unwarranted unless supported by some kind of evidence. Please don't allow your emotions to overrule your good sense.

[Hekate]

14. Follow the money

[Takket]

20. one of the people at the rpess cofnerence today was saying.....

a woman, the "head of the coronavirus response team" or some title like that.... she said the WHO test kits were only about 50% accurate and giving false positives and negatives, and that we wanted to make our own kits that were as accurate as possible.

Take that for what it is worth coming from a drumpf official, but that is what she said.

[dumbcat]

22. As I mentioned above,

the Korean government supposedly found the same inaccuracies.

[brewens]

26. Doesn't Rick Scott have to be involved somehow? n/t

[DonaldsRump]

27. How so? n/t

[brewens]

28. I think it was random drug testing of welfare recipients in Fla. where his wife had a stake in

clinics that would do testing. Or it may have been state employee testing. That after the Medicare fraud he pulled off.

I was just thinking he'd be pissed if he didn't get a taste of this.

[malaise]

30. No tests - no increase in number of people with Covid -19

And then follow the money - the US practices healthcare for profit.

[DonaldsRump]

31. Yes. The central point of this thread is how Trump has bungled the testing

of the "Trump Virus."

As I stated in the OP, the availability of the WHO test, and Trump's failure to adopt it AT ANY TIME, is a key reason why the US is in the situation we are in (that is, we are far behind many other countries). That would be politically devastating for Trump, right there and then, putting aside all other failures.

There is a healthy debate in this thread, with some saying the WHO test was too imprecise. As far as I can tell, that does NOT seem to be the case.

As I see it, this is highly explosive for Trump's re-election bid (and turning away from politics, our collective and individual health).

[malaise]

33. Look at the difference with South Korea

and other countries. He is one sick fuck - it's always about him.