
Pentagon Knew of Possible Coronavirus Threat for Years - happy-go-lucky
https://www.npr.org/2020/04/05/827692672/report-pentagon-aware-of-possible-coronavirus-threat-for-years
======
nickysielicki
I’m so sick of articles about unpreparedness. It’s real rich coming from the
same exact media rooms that tried to make me and others feel like idiots when
we saw what was going on in Hubei in January — ”it’s no big deal”. Now all of
a sudden it’s supposed to have been obvious for years? Just stop with this
bullshit, please.

~~~
decebalus1
> from the same exact media rooms

can you point me to an article from NPR which was downplaying the outbreak?

~~~
daxorid
Here you go:

[https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2020/01/29/8008132...](https://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2020/01/29/800813299/worried-about-catching-the-new-coronavirus-in-the-
u-s-flu-is-a-bigger-threat)

~~~
xenophonf
At the time, that was true.

~~~
nickysielicki
By that logic, the Pentagon acted reasonably. So what's this new article
about, then?

~~~
xenophonf
Different audience, different role. Their whole job is threat forecasting and
risk management.

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eiji
Hm ... Should we spend these 2 billion here on a multi-faceted pandemic
response plan, or buy another air-craft-carrier? Let's do the carrier!

~~~
trimbo
I see your 2 billion for a carrier and raise you $1 trillion for the F35

[https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/magazine/f35-joint-
strike...](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/magazine/f35-joint-strike-
fighter-program.html)

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mataug
Bill Gates also knew about this threat for years, and so did the audience who
watched that talk

[https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re...](https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready)

Just saying, there is plenty of blame to go around for all of us, once this
pandemic crisis is resolved.

~~~
foogazi
Yeah, though at some point you have to ask the question:

“Where does the buck stop?”

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_passing)

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iamwil
Maybe it should have read, "No one would heed a Pentagon report for years"

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malandrew
Why was this flagged? It's surprising to see something from NPR get flagged. I
didn't see anything uncontroversial in the content.

~~~
tansey
It's political news:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters,
or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
topic."

~~~
dvtrn
I wish this ‘guideline’ or _any_ guideline would attempt to even define what
the moderation team considers to be ‘political’ because it seems like the
community itself cannot agree on a universal- _enough_ term that would apply
to the types of discussions where politics and technology may intersect.

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ai_ja_nai
What kind of demented, clickbait article is this? Every epidemiologist of the
world was aware a pandemy would have come. And, guess what? We WERE prepared.
It's being managed, it hurts, yes, but it hasn't turned into a zombie
apocalypse with millions of victims. \- from Italy

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harunurhan
It wasn't difficult to know, was it? Gates and some other were already
alarming about this, even some documentaries were produced about this.

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talolard
Imagine making headline news when you do your job

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oski
Not surprising at all.

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olivermarks
The parent article [https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-military-
sh...](https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/covid-military-shortage-
pandemic/) Not a Trump fan but this is very biased against the current
administration. TLDR The pentagon warned the administration about coronavirus
threats in 2017 but civilian politicians didn't ramp up supplies in case the
threat was realized.

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jorblumesea
Almost every expert in disease prevention and public health has been warning
about this for years. Intelligence agencies, the military even knew about the
dangers of the outbreak as it was happening.

Most of the blame should lie solidly on Trump and how he runs the presidency.

A really good breakdown of the complete mess the current administration is and
their inability to accept the facts and respond appropriately.

[https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-
security/2020/04/04/...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-
security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/)

Archive link: [http://archive.is/3qCa4](http://archive.is/3qCa4)

~~~
coding123
It really does. I don't often attribute major changes in the economy to a
sitting president. But after dismantling and shunning half of the security
apparatus, and not listening to advisors, this is what we get. He single
handedly dismantled the CDC when he became president [0]. He routinely doesn't
listen to his national security advisors [1]. If we just had started social
distancing 2 weeks before, we would be in an entirely different situation.

[0] [https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/24/trump-
cuts-u...](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/24/trump-cuts-
undermine-coronavirus-containment-cdc-watchdog-report)

[1] [https://newrepublic.com/article/147366/anti-
intelligence](https://newrepublic.com/article/147366/anti-intelligence)

~~~
tomschlick
> He single handedly dismantled the CDC when he became president.

From what I can tell, that was a 2021 budget proposal (done before this all
started) that hasn't been approved or taken effect.

[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-cdc-
budget/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-cut-cdc-budget/)

Based on this chart (and the article you posted) he has proposed cuts to their
non-infection disease related programs but congress has kept the funding
intact.

[https://envirodatagov.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-...](https://envirodatagov.org/wp-
content/uploads/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-21-at-3.30.30-PM-768x784.png)

~~~
decebalus1
I think people are confusing the CDC with the Pandemic Response Team:
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-
team/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-fire-pandemic-team/)

