[BostonCard]

Genetic analysis has shown that most of the cases in New York were imported from Europe, not directly from China.

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-car...rchers-say

I share no love for the CCP, and GR has noted their failings in great detail. However, that does not excuse our own shortcomings.

I can answer #3.  The regulatory morass (at least with regards to testing) probably came from the FDA.  They are described well in this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/te...demic.html

I'm going to quote it extensively.

Dr. Stephen Hahn’s first day as F.D.A. commissioner came just six weeks before Mr. Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. A radiation oncologist and researcher who helped turn around MD Anderson in Houston, one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, Dr. Hahn had come to Washington to oversee a sprawling federal agency that regulates everything from lifesaving therapies to dog food.
But overnight, his mission — to manage 15,000 employees in a culture defined by precision and caution — was upended. A pathogen that Mr. Trump would later call the “invisible enemy” was hurtling toward the United States. It would fall to the newly arrived Dr. Hahn to help build a brobdingnagian national capacity for testing by academic and private labs.
Instead, under his leadership, the F.D.A. became a significant roadblock, according to current and former officials as well as researchers and doctors at laboratories around the country.
Private-sector tests were supposed to be the next tier after the C.D.C. fulfilled its obligation to jump-start screening at public labs. In other countries hit hard by the coronavirus, governments acted quickly to speed tests to their populations. In South Korea, for example, regulators in early February summoned executives from 20 medical manufacturers, easing rules as they demanded tests.
But Dr. Hahn took a cautious approach. He was not proactive in reaching out to manufacturers, and instead deferred to his scientists, following the F.D.A.’s often cumbersome methods for approving medical screening.

Now, the FDA is very capable of moving fast.  It is currently turning around protocols for investigational new drugs (INDs) and granting approval for clinical trials in as little as 1 day (normally, there's a 30-day review period).  But early in the crisis, the Agency failed with regard to clearing testing .  But also, it is up to Alex Azar (HHS secretary, who oversees both FDA and CDC) to recognize that if the FDA isn't clearing tests fast enough and it is impairing our ability to detect cases.  And if the response is not up to snuff, it is up to Azar's boss to get to the bottom of what is going on and clear the path (for example, by issuing an executive order).  Clearly the FDA was capable of easing commercial tests (and things have gone much more quickly since then), so this wasn't that the bureaucracy prevented them from doing so in the strict sense of the word.  It's just that no one lit a fire under their arse to get them to overcome the bureaucratic barriers.  Not Hahn, not Azar, and not Trump.  Clearly a President who can institute a 30-day travel ban from Europe could also have directed the FDA to get its act together.  But let's face it, while the President is perfectly willing to be bold, he tends towards large, highly visible, (and arguably symbolic) gestures.  But let's face it, understanding the nitty gritty of administrative procedure is not one of the President's strong suits.

BC

[BostonCard]

Genetic analysis has shown that most of the cases in New York were imported from Europe, not directly from China.

https://www.crainsnewyork.com/health-car...rchers-say

I share no love for the CCP, and GR has noted their failings in great detail. However, that does not excuse our own shortcomings.

I can answer #3.  The regulatory morass (at least with regards to testing) probably came from the FDA.  They are described well in this article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/te...demic.html

I'm going to quote it extensively.

Dr. Stephen Hahn’s first day as F.D.A. commissioner came just six weeks before Mr. Azar declared a public health emergency on Jan. 31. A radiation oncologist and researcher who helped turn around MD Anderson in Houston, one of the nation’s leading cancer centers, Dr. Hahn had come to Washington to oversee a sprawling federal agency that regulates everything from lifesaving therapies to dog food.
But overnight, his mission — to manage 15,000 employees in a culture defined by precision and caution — was upended. A pathogen that Mr. Trump would later call the “invisible enemy” was hurtling toward the United States. It would fall to the newly arrived Dr. Hahn to help build a brobdingnagian national capacity for testing by academic and private labs.
Instead, under his leadership, the F.D.A. became a significant roadblock, according to current and former officials as well as researchers and doctors at laboratories around the country.
Private-sector tests were supposed to be the next tier after the C.D.C. fulfilled its obligation to jump-start screening at public labs. In other countries hit hard by the coronavirus, governments acted quickly to speed tests to their populations. In South Korea, for example, regulators in early February summoned executives from 20 medical manufacturers, easing rules as they demanded tests.
But Dr. Hahn took a cautious approach. He was not proactive in reaching out to manufacturers, and instead deferred to his scientists, following the F.D.A.’s often cumbersome methods for approving medical screening.

Now, the FDA is very capable of moving fast.  It is currently turning around protocols for investigational new drugs (INDs) and granting approval for clinical trials in as little as 1 day (normally, there's a 30-day review period).  But early in the crisis, the Agency failed with regard to clearing testing .  But also, it is up to Alex Azar (HHS secretary, who oversees both FDA and CDC) to recognize that if the FDA isn't clearing tests fast enough and it is impairing our ability to detect cases.  And if the response is not up to snuff, it is up to Azar's boss to get to the bottom of what is going on and clear the path (for example, by issuing an executive order).  Clearly the FDA was capable of easing commercial tests (and things have gone much more quickly since then), so this wasn't that the bureaucracy prevented them from doing so in the strict sense of the word.  It's just that no one lit a fire under their arse to get them to overcome the bureaucratic barriers.  Not Hahn, not Azar, and not Trump.  Clearly a President who can institute a 30-day travel ban from Europe could also have directed the FDA to get its act together.  But let's face it, while the President is perfectly willing to be bold, he tends towards large, highly visible, (and arguably symbolic) gestures.  But let's face it, understanding the nitty gritty of administrative procedure is not one of the President's strong suits.

BC