By:
Dave Kingsley
The COVID Tragedy Was System Failure that Didn’t Need to Happen
The U.S. health care system, which includes preventative and public health, is complex and dynamic. Unfortunately, this necessary and critical system for the good of the public interest has been declining into catastrophic failure mode for at least two decades. We struggled to manage and survive a systemic collapse of the economy along with medical systems due to an inept response to a deadly pandemic during 2020 and 2021.
Because private interests had taken precedence over the health needs of the public, approximately 2000 nursing home patients and employees had died of COVID by April of 2022.[1] They are victims of industry greed and neglect, government deregulation, and venal, corrupt, and indifferent politicians. Given the lack of Trump Administration concern and preparation and given what happened in the Senate Intelligence Committee discussed below, it should come as no surprise that dangerous and destructive conspiracy theories abound. How easy it is to see why government failure has inflamed cynicism among such a widespread number of Americans.
The previous administration, bureaucrats, and legislators knew that the probability of a plague was high but did not have the capacity to respond when it did happen. Successful response to a rapidly moving scourge requires: (1) a plan, (2) a strategy, (3) adequate equipment/supplies, (4) technology (5) trained personnel, and (6) and competent, honest leadership willing to implement the plan.
The consequence of a blasé attitude on the part of government in January of 2020 was devastating. There was no plan, no strategy, adequate personal protective gear, enough ventilators, bed capacity and other equipment and supplies needed in a pandemic.
The question is why? Public health and infectious disease experts had been warning for decades that pandemics would grow more severe and more frequent (In 1993, global public health expert Laurie Garrett warned us of that in The Coming Plague). Indeed, since the 1980s, we have seen HIV, H1N1, SARS, and Ebola outbreaks spread across the planet. It is not as if there have not been dire health scares in our past that could have informed us of the critical need for preparedness in the future.
Who Knew What and When Did they Know it?
The CIA was aware of something serious going on in China in December of 2019. The Chinese economy was practically brought to a halt and serious isolation practices were implemented as only an authoritarian government can implement population control. The disease quickly spread to other Asian countries. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan implemented extensive organized and effective prevention efforts. Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan had prior experience with the SARS epidemic and undertook impressive campaigns to keep the outbreak from overwhelming their medical systems. They succeeded.
Why were administration officials in the United States so sanguine about a novel virus that prompted massive public health efforts in China and other Asian nations? Even after it was known that a case of COVID had been discovered in a Washington state nursing home, the U.S. government remained unconcerned. Or did it?
Former Senator Richard Burr, Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was a leading legislative figure in the development of a national plan to thwart pandemics. He was not a neophyte in public health policy. Nevertheless, having been present at a “closed door” COVID19 briefing presented by the Trump Administration National Security Council on January 24th of 2020, he announced to the public that the virus would be contained and that grave worries about a pandemic weren’t justified.
By late February, Senator Burr had dumped stock worth between $628,000 and $1.7 million.. Intelligence Committee Members Feinstein, Loeffler, Purdue, Inhofe, and Johnson also unloaded a considerable amount of stock.[2] The public was not immediately aware of these financial transactions. The contents of the briefing have never been disclosed to the public. In a search of the Senate Intelligence Committee website, no evidence could be found that a meeting regarding COVID 19 was held.[3]
Journalists uncovered an audio recording of Senator Richard Burr, Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling some donors in a private meeting that the coming pandemic could be as serious as the global flu pandemic of 1918. He was not at all as laid back and buoyant as he was in public at that time. The donor meeting occurred on February 27th.[4]
At the time Senator Burr was not expressing the same alarm in public he imparted to his close political allies, the President of the United States declared at a South Carolina rally on February 28th – one day after Burr’s ominous statements caught on audio – that the corona virus was a Democratic Party hoax.
Throughout February and most of the month of March, Trump and his powerful propaganda machine consisting of Fox News, an assortment of well-funded and well-organized Christian nationalist organizations, and most of the Republican Party repeated the corona virus hoax lie. A phalanx of right-wing virus deniers, conspiracy theorists, and Fox bloviators were egged on by the president who at best was recognizing that the disease did exist, but claimed that it was primarily China’s problem and wouldn’t amount to much in the U.S.
Minimizing by the CDC, NIH, HHS, and the FDA at Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee Hearing
On March 3rd, Trump Administration officials responsible for pandemic preparedness, presented their views on potential threats to public health from the COVID19 outbreak at an open hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee. Dr. Robert Kadlec, Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, HHS stated that, “The potential global public health threat posed by this virus is high, but right now, the immediate risk to most Americans is low. The greater risk is for people who have recently traveled to an affected country or been exposed to someone with COVID19.”
After the SARS epidemic, Asian countries developed pandemic guidelines for nursing homes. The nursing home industry and HHS/CMS were totally indifferent to the steps taken by countries affected by SARS to prepare for the eventuality of another plague.[5]
Will Our Government Fail Us the Next Time?
Over a million Americans died during the raging Covid19 pandemic. Nursing homes have been disproportionally affected. Over four years after the outbreak, two major nursing home commissions have avoided direct confrontation with the industry and CMS over lack of preparation prior to COVID and misfeasance and nonfeasance during the Pandemic. Little to no attention has been devoted to the issue of responsibility. As has become a normal response to serious negligence and consequent damage to the public by industry and government inaction, no entities or persons have been held accountable.
The behavior of U.S. Senators privy to information not available to the public and acting on that information in their interests and to the detriment of the public is disgusting. It is in fact criminal. A flurry of activity by the DOJ, SEC, and Senate Ethics Committee was initiated and then dropped. No one was held accountable. The government failed the American people, Senators behaved criminally, responsible parties escaped accountability, and the country moved on.
It is delusional to believe that another scourge is not likely. Advocates need to begin asking questions about protocols in nursing homes, stockpiling of personal protective equipment, and responsibility of the industry for preparation and administration of facilities during a pandemic. We are dealing with an industry in which shareholders have intrinsic value and patients have instrumental value. Investors’ mission is to maximize cash flow. To do that, they will naturally minimize care. That is immoral and medically unethical.
[1] Over 200,000 Residents and Staff in Long-Term Care Facilities Have Died From COVID-19 | KFF
[2] The Senator Who Dumped His Stocks Before the Coronavirus Crash Has Asked Ethics Officials for a “Complete Review” — ProPublica. Senator Feinstein sold stock worth $7 million dollars.
[3] https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/, “HEARINGS” tab. I checked this URL in the Spring of 2020 and could not find any information about the hearing.
[4] The audio of the Senator warning his wealthy supporters about the coming plague can be heard at https://media.crooksandliars.com/2020/03/44593.mp3_standard.mp3.
[5] (2) Care homes and COVID-19 in Hong Kong: how the lessons from SARS were used to good effect (researchgate.net); see also: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(23)00062-4/fulltext