Facts Matter

Testing is important. It is the first and most important building block of planning when presented with an unknown variable. Without testing as soon as you have an unknown variable you must choose an action based upon assumptions instead of facts. This is the blueprint for disaster in any field. Faulty assumptions invariably lead to more faulty assumptions so that progress is impeded and whatever one is trying to accomplish soon fails when enough bad decisions are piled one on top of the other.

At the moment the critical lack of testing availability for the Coronavirus is crippling the country. This lack of testing is doing two things that are extremely harmful for people in the United States. IT is causing responsible people who probably have a common cold or respiratory infection to stay at home for up to two weeks because they don't want to spread what could be a deadly contagion for older people. It is also causing irresponsible people who don't understand the problem to continue in their daily routines so that if they have the virus they are spreading it to a lot of other people. This is effectively the formula for turning a contagion into a pandemic such as what we have right now in most of the rest of the world. We don't really know if we have one here because we don't have the availability of tests to answer the basic question of whether people should stay home or not.

It is the one most critical tool to reacting to a contagion of any kind and we are missing that tool no matter how many times our President lies to us by saying we have it available. The fact of the matter is that the test kits the federal government had as late as the end of February were inconclusive when administered. Think about the massive incompetence that implies. The one tool we had to determine who had the virus was inconclusive. Add in the fact that the number of tests we had were laughably low. My state was issued a little over one thousand tests. Up until last week, the only place that thad these tests was in Montgomery. In a state of almost 5 million people we have 1000 tests. This means we could test 2 people out of every thousand that live here.

It's hard to accurately state how unprepared this country was for this event. I'm sure in the weeks and months ahead we will find out a lot more about how unprepared we are in many other ways but the lack of effective testing has made it impossible for us to make good decisions and that alone has caused this to spin so far out of control. Add the initial responses from the right wing conspiracy mongers who currently have power in this country and the assumptions that were allowed to rule because we didn't have facts and you have the real reason we are now in the state of disaster we find ourselves mired in.

Unfortunately, we have a President who doesn't deal in facts at all. As Kelly Anne Conway pointed out to a stunned media at the start of his presidency they have "alternate facts". This is a euphemism for hopeful lies. Lies that suit the narrative Trump lives by. People who constantly lie make bad leaders. Leaders who make critical decisions based upon their own lies and ignore facts are indescribably dangerous. The lack of availability of testing has led to the disaster were are in at the moment. As bad as it is, it pales in comparison to the basic lack of understanding of the necessity for FACTS in making decisions that exists in the mind of Donald Trump as President of the United States.