
White House told federal health agency to classify coronavirus deliberations - aazaa
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-secrecy-exclusive-idUSKBN20Y2LM
======
hurricanetc
I don’t understand the motivation. Lying and pretending is just going to make
the situation worse and push the reckoning to a later date. Given that it is
an election year it seems to me that punting this out is a really stupid idea
for the incumbent administration.

Maybe they are just hoping that if they lie and withhold information long
enough it will just disappear over summer? Seems like a really silly gamble
with a huge potential downside and nearly nonexistent upside.

~~~
themagician
If you sufficiently limit testing then the numbers will always be within your
control.

Without a treatment or vaccine there is no point in testing. It will just
cause panic. The US isn’t like other countries where people go to the doctor
when they get sick. If people think they just have the flu they will just stay
home and die instead of putting a strain on resources.

A morbid reality, but the best solution for the system we have. Transparency
and testing won’t be good for anyone. What works everywhere else doesn’t
always work in the US.

~~~
sliken
No point in testing? How can you make any decisions for public safety without
numbers? Numerous options like pushing jobs and schools to go virtual,
cancelling sports events, conferences, etc. Even to the point of blocking
roads and air travel. It's 10x worse if everyone gets sick at the same time,
so slowing the spread is quite valuable... even if the same number of people
get sick.

Not to mention various treatments are being tested. Gilead has a promising
drug, and it looks like an old malaria drug might be just what is needed. Lots
of promising results in petri dishes, none from a good double blind study...
yet. A delay of a month or two might well halve the death rate, even ignoring
things like over burdened hospitals.

~~~
themagician
Think for a second. You can’t close schools in the US. There is no safety net
for people to not go to work. No job, no healthcare at all.

Panic only makes it worse. The sad reality is the best option we have at the
moment is for people to pretend like nothing is wrong. Everyone gets to keep
their job, income and health insurance for as long as possible. If you get
sick, stay home. If you get really sick weigh the cost of going to the doctor
against death.

In much of the US many people will opt to just die at home instead of seek
medical care. As a result, the system actually won’t get overloaded. If people
panic and start showing up at the ER it will though.

~~~
otterley
> You can’t close schools in the US.

I don't know what you mean by this - we've had "snow days" for a very long
time.

~~~
scohesc
I'm sure they mean long term...

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jhayward
The "simplest" explanation would be that they were discussing the outbreak in
China and using secret intelligence gathered by classified sources or
processes to do so.

Even so, it would still be stupid to let those limited discussions be where
policy was made.

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slowmovintarget
> HHS has SCIFs because theoretically it would play a major role in biowarfare
> or chemical attacks.

Maybe public health isn't the only thing being discussed in these meetings?

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tareqak
Possible duplicate of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607)
. I can’t tell which one was posted first.

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eddyg
[Dupe]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607)

------
jrs235
dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22547607)

------
nine_zeros
This administration is the most crooked set of losers ever. From day 1,
they've only divided and destroyed effective governance and shredded effective
people from the government.

What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic
illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash
the stock market?

~~~
foxyv
> What are they going to do now? Let people die just to keep the economic
> illusion running or let people live with actual infection numbers and crash
> the stock market?

Most likely, yes. They will prevent the public from seeing the extent of the
problem until after thousands of people die they will use their media
resources to blame someone else.

