CDC & Cal DHCS: Fatal Ineptitude

We are almost two years into Covid. These are not early days, not 2020 when this new and unknown monster sprang from its lair in Wuhan, China to ravage the world. We now have the Trump vaccines and a growing quiver of treatments. Plus, we’ve had ample time to get our act together. That last is directed at the public health officials whose job it is to prevent avoidable death and disability. Many of those officials, including President Biden, Dr. Fauci and the CDC, down to many governors and state and local health directors, are doing a manifestly incompetent job. People are suffering unnecessarily, even dying, because of their ineptitude.

Let’s repeat that last assertion: People are dying — unnecessarily!

Not In My House

The person dearest in the world to me recently got a breakthrough case of Covid, and recovered after an awful two weeks. However, it could have been even worse for her. Luckily, I didn’t get it, tested negative, and am also vaxxed. From this experience, I got an intimate picture of how the health authorities are communicating with the public about Covid, especially to those of us who get it or have a loved one who got it.

Google “covid treatments” = Baffling Result

First, I Googled the obvious search term: covid treatments. After all, there are several known treatments, some that even Democrats can’t gainsay. However, Google didn’t know about any treatments, or at least any worth putting on page 1 of the search results. Proof is this screenshot from early December of the Google result, co-branded with the CDC logo.

Idiotic Treatment Plan

So, Google and the CDC say that if you get Covid, do these three things.

1. Get rest.

2. Drink water.

3. Take Tylenol.

Are you freaking serious? That’s it. TYLENOL!!! Nothing about monoclonal antibodies, not Regeneron or anything. Nothing about what to do if you are above a certain age or immunocompromised. Never mind, that monoclonal antibodies are the proper treatment in that case, and can be had at the nearest ER here in California.

Nothing about the Merck pill or the Pfizer pill. In fairness, neither of those was yet approved in early December, but they should have been mentioned, with the note that they weren’t yet approved. And BTW, why did it take so long to approve them? Whatever happened to Right To Try? That was one of President Trump’s commonsense triumphs. Did the nitwit Biden Administration also strike Right To Try along with the countless other Trump policies they’ve robotically reversed?

Fortunately, I began networking and quickly spoke with a couple ER doctors. Each recommended Regeneron, which we were easily able to get administered at the nearby ER. Did it make a difference? Unknown, but it probably helped.

But, you shouldn’t have to have medical doctors in your personal network to get proper treatment advice for this widespread public health threat. What is a farmworker in Central Calfifornia to do, or a truck driver in Pennsylvania? It’s as if the Democrats don’t care if the non-affluent die, notwithstanding that they are both fellow Americans and the type of people the Democratic party used to consider its base.

Variant? What Variant?

Another ineptitude is that after the positive rapid test showed my dearest had Covid, no follow on test was ordered to see which variant it was. Not that knowing the variant would have made a difference in treatment, but you’d think that Cal DHCS and CDC would want to know. They would, right?

The Silicon Valley State Can’t Design a Website

Here is the Cal DHCS Covid Response site. It’s awful and downright amateurish. Risible design aside, notice the 100% orientation towards vaccines. For most public health officials and the Democrats they serve, it’s all prevention all the time. Treatment? We don’t need no stinking treatment.

Florida Gets It Right

Now get a gander at Florida’s Covid Response site. It’s well designed, appropriately balances prevention with treatment, and clearly front-ends solid logistics on the ground. Floridians are privileged to live in a state with a competent governor. If only we Californians could be so lucky…

Get it right! Now!!

Covid isn’t going away. Even before the largely toothless Omicron variant hit, Covid had become a non-lethal reality. It followed the trajectory over one year that cancer followed over several decades: from death sentence to unpleasant inconvenience for most.

If You Get Covid

I’m no doctor. I’m a layman and patient’s advocate. That disclaimer aside, here’s what I discovered.

1. Contact your local ER and ask to get treated with a monoclonal antibody, e.g., Regeneron.

2. Also ask about getting the Merck or Pfizer antibody pills.

3. Then do the nitwit things that Google and CDC recommend.

Good luck and let’s get back to living.

Stop Over-Indexing on Prevention

Lastly, let’s stop over-indexing on prevention. It’s causing unnecessary death and suffering for those who get Covid, plus its attendant vax and mask mandates are causing a breakdown in civil society and supply chains alike.

And yet, to the Left and the public health lackeys under their dominion, it is prevention über alles.

Wrong. We have treatments now. Plus, Omicron is both much less virulent than earlier variants and much more contagious. Thus, it now makes sense to over-index on treatment, with prevention taking a back-seat.

But then, you’d need to have common sense to realize that, something that our public health officials obviously lack.