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| -Land of the Free |
| North Dakota needs a state health officer who realizes they aren't the governor |
| 2020-09-27 |
| [Inforum] It is fashionable in certain political circles — among those who think the job of an elected leader is simply to get elected — to talk about how we should just do, as public policy, what technical experts tell us to do. Folks, that's not leadership. MINOT, N.D. — After Gov. Doug Burgum's administration rescinded a quarantine order yesterday, one which had misdemeanor criminal charges attached to it for violators, interim State Health Officer Dr. Paul Mariani has announced his resignation. He'd been on the job for less than a month, and he's now the third person to step down from the position since the pandemic began. It will be tempting for some, particularly Burgum's political enemies, to suggest the governor is doing something wrong. From outward appearances, I'm not at all certain that's true. I think our real problem is in finding someone for the SHO role who understands that they are not the governor. Thursday I was the first to report that the controversial quarantine order was to be rescinded. Between that moment and Dr. Mariani's resignation this evening I interviewed Burgum. Toward the end of our conversation, he sad something that, in retrospect, is pretty fascinating. I was closing out the interview, and Burgum interjected to praise our public health officials. "One thing I want to say in support of our local public health teams, they're working so hard," Burgum said. "They care deeply about people's health. That's their job. Their job isn't to look holistically about the economy and education, their job is on health." That bit about what the job of public health officials is, and is not, reveals a great deal about Burgum's mindset. It's his job, as our state's top elected official, to "holistically" (to use his term) consider all aspects of public policy, from health to the economy to education. Public health officials have a narrower remit which makes them responsible for just one of those facets. That attitude — and it's the correct one for a governor to have — is at the heart of Burgum's apparent conflict with his state health officials. It is fashionable in certain political circles — among those who think the job of an elected leader is simply to get elected — to talk about how we should just do, as public policy, what technical experts tell us to do. Folks, that's not leadership. Someone like Dr. Mariani, without question, has expertise when it comes to questions of health. Yet the quarantine order he issued touched on policy areas far outside the expertise of a doctor. How would that order be enforced? That's a law enforcement issue. Disobeying the order would have been a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. But if you arrest someone for a crime, they are afforded certain rights, including access to public defenders and all the due process our statutes and constitution and reams and reams of jurisprudence afford. There is clearly a very vocal and active faction of North Dakotans who saw that order as unjust. If they resisted it, was the state prepared for the resulting court cases? And perhaps civil suits? That may not be the sort of thing a technical expert, like a doctor, considers. Yet those ramifications are exactly what a governor must consider. Burgum wants people to wear masks. He wants them to distance themselves while in public. He also wants them to quarantine for the appropriate amount of time after coming in close contact with someone who tested positive. But because he's a governor, and not a technical expert with all of the policy-area myopia inherent to that sort of position, he understands the political, legal and even economic ramifications for trying to force those things, by law, in a place like North Dakota. "We know the government telling people what to do in North Dakota doesn't work," Burgum said during our interview. He's right. For those of you who think he's wrong, you have an alternative in Democratic-NPL challenger Shelley Lenz who has made it clear that she'll appoint someone else to make these tough policy decisions for her. |
| Posted by:746 |
| #6 Vitamin C and corticosteroids are or were being used in a sepsis treatment trial. I think that’s interesting. |
| Posted by: Cluper and Company4908 2020-09-27 22:11 |
| #5 How many are hospitalized? Via Insty: Researchers from Florida think they have found a coronavirus cure, saying their treatment protocols had a success rate of nearly 100%. AdventHealth Ocala doctors treated their patients with a combination of four types of drugs under the acronym ICAM. ICAM is a COVID-19 therapy designed to boost the immune system while preventing inflammation in the lungs. A clinical trial is underway to prove the findings. If it’s found to be safe and effective, ICAM therapy might be used on COVID-19 patients without the need to hospitalize them.... ICAM isn’t a new drug, it’s an acronym for a combination of existing medications used simultaneously on patients. It uses Immunosupport drugs (Vitamin C and Zinc), Corticosteroids against inflammation, Anticoagulants against blood clots, and Macrolides to help fight infection. |
| Posted by: Cluper and Company4908 2020-09-27 22:08 |
| #4 There's input from the scouts, you read the map, and observe the weather. But in the end the man in charge makes the call. |
| Posted by: Cesare 2020-09-27 11:49 |
| #3 Arrivederci, Dottore Mariani. Don't let the door hit you in the culo.... |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-09-27 08:00 |
| #2 U.S. Midwest sees surge in COVID-19 cases as four states report record increases |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-09-27 07:45 |
| #1 Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government. Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded. Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite. - Eisenhower's address to the nation. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-09-27 07:14 |