Red Tape Pandemic

An excellent video by John Stossel on the FDA and the government's reaction to this situation. This is near and dear to my heart because a large part of my job is navigating the shitshow of licensing and regulations of the FDA.

Red Tape Pandemic - John Stossel

Video description:

quote:

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Regulations have delayed test kits, “telehealth", and hospital innovation, making the coronavirus pandemic worse.

If our government had instead allowed private test-makers to sell them from the start, the U.S. could have controlled COVID-19 without lockdowns, the way South Korea did, by testing lots of people, and isolating just the sick.

The Trump administration has now finally waived the testing regulations, saying: just do it! Ask permission later.

It turns out many regulations got in the way of fighting the virus.

American rules limited:

-- "Telehealth" that allows people to talk remotely with doctors, saving patients a visit that might make them sick.
-- Licensed doctors from practicing in other states.
-- Hospitals from having more than a certain number of beds.

Now those rules are mostly waived.

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My hope is that people come out of this situation realizing the government didn't save us, but I'm seeing a lot of it already. "Don't ask questions about lack of testing, just listen and believe" and "Use the national guard to force people to stay in their homes!!". The government sees this and will snatch these types of powers, just like they did after 9/11. The government, as in most cases, made the situation worse with the CDC test kit fiasco and unnecessary regulations on private companies trying to develop test kits.