THE CDC: A PANTLOAD OF FAIL. Coronavirus tests were delayed by contamination at CDC lab, report says.

A delay by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in quickly making coronavirus test kits available was the result of “a glaring scientific breakdown” at the CDC’s central lab, The Washington Post reported Saturday, citing scientists and federal regulators.

The Post reported that CDC facilities which assembled the testing kits “violated sound manufacturing practices, resulting in contamination of one of the three test components used in the highly sensitive detection process.”

And while the part of the test that was compromised was not critical to detecting the coronavirus, CDC officials took more than a month to remove it from the test kits, according to The Post.

That lag in action aggravated national delays in testing for the virus, and in turn hampered a battle to contain the virus’s spread, the newspaper said.

Sad, but unsurprising. The CDC just isn’t very good at its job.

Related: The CDC was Fighting Racism and Obesity Instead of Stopping Epidemics.

Flashback: You had one job, CDC.

IF TRUMP NEEDS A NEW WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, I’VE FOUND HER:

ANDREW DAVIS: An untenable course: the world’s response to coronavirus.

FLASHBACK: Disaster in New York does not require the same policy everywhere.

OPEN THREAD: Comment away, but be careful. Even Cathy Berberian knows, there’s one roulade she can’t sing.

SHUTDOWN PAIN GROWS MORE DEMOCRATIC: Vox Media furloughs more than 100 employees for three months.Layoffs Hit Valence Media: Hollywood Reporter, Dick Clark Productions, Billboard, Vibe Affected.

ViacomCBS Lets Go Of Contract Workers Amid Coronavirus Pandemic As More Layoffs Loom.

Temporary pay cuts and furloughs announced at NJ Advance Media, but no layoffs as coronavirus hits revenues.

Condé Nast plans hundreds of layoffs.

The Music Industry’s Lost Summer: No Bieber, No Swift and Mass Layoffs.

News Media Outlets Have Been Ravaged by the Pandemic. “Roughly 33,000 workers at news companies in the U.S. have been laid off, been furloughed or had their pay reduced. Some publications that rely on ads have shut down.”

UPDATE: Shit just got real. ‘Historic’ N.J. public worker layoffs coming if no new coronavirus aid from feds, Murphy says.

Watch establishment opinion on reopening change in a hurry once journalists and government workers are losing their jobs.

UM:

FLASHBACK:

● Shot: “In terms of the happy talk we’ve had on this front from the federal government, there is no sign that the Navy hospital ships that the president made such a big deal of, the Comfort and the Mercy, there’s no sign that they`ll be anywhere on-site helping out anywhere in the country for weeks yet. The president said when he announced that those ships would be put into action against the COVID-19 epidemic. He said one of those ships would be operational in New York harbor by next week. That’s nonsense. It will not be there next week.”

—MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, March 20th.

● Chaser: “The Mercy arrived in L.A. on Friday, March 27, just one week after Maddow said the ship will take weeks to arrive. The USNS Comfort arrived in New York City’s harbor on Monday, March 30.”

—“Rachel Maddow Calls The Timely Arrival Of Navy Hospital Ships ‘Nonsense,’” the Federalist today.

WELL, YOU WOULDN’T WORK ON BUILDING AN ORION SPACESHIP IF YOU DIDN’T WANT A PIECE OF THE MOON: China wants a piece of the moon. Here’s how it plans to handle lunar samples.

SPACE: NASA sets May 27 date for historic first SpaceX launch with crew aboard.

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RATHER A LOT, REALLY: Here’s How Much Downstate New York Is Skewing the United States’ Coronavirus Numbers. “What this tells us is that there shouldn’t be a one-size-fits-all approach to social distancing or reopening the country. I feel pretty safe where I live, but because I’m in New York State, and Governor Cuomo is treating the whole state like it is downstate, I have to abide by the same statewide restrictions. Further, if the media ever chose to look at the country’s numbers the way I have, they’d see that the overwhelming majority of the country is doing much, much better than it appears to be when you include downstate New York in our numbers.”

AS THIS SPREADS, THE CALLS TO REOPEN AMERICA WILL GROW MUCH MORE RESPECTABLE: UArizona announces pay cuts, furloughs for all faculty, staff.

AND YET, JUST IN TIME FOR THE PANDEMIC THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE REPLACED OUR PAPER TOWELS WITH THOSE POOP-FAN HAND DRYERS: Paper towels beat air dryers against viruses, small study finds. “Good hand-washing practice should be followed by proper hand-drying. Paper towels can help reduce the spread of microbes and should be a preferred method of hand-drying, especially at a time when good hand hygiene is the most effective measure to prevent COVID-19.”

The move was pushed by our Office of Sustainability, but I don’t see how this is sustainable in a post-Pandemic world.

ALL MODELS ARE WRONG. SOME MODELS ARE USEFUL. After Repeated Failures, It’s Time To Permanently Dump Epidemic Models. However, these models haven’t been especially useful.

The thing is, to model things accurately you need reliable data and an accurate understanding of the underlying processes. We have neither of those, so models mostly just generate attractive graphs to conceal the uncertainties.

THOSE EPIDEMIC MODELS WERE WAY OFF: So Issues & Insights says it’s time to stop paying attention to them.

ROGER SIMON: Cuomo Blunders Big Tying NY Recovery to CCP Apologists McKinsey.

Read the whole thing.

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DEAR DIARY:

Imagine a British journalist publicly stating something like this during The Blitz. Our media class really is like a bunch of middle-school girls.

Plus, ouch:

UPDATE: A friend texts: “Funny how all those bible clinging, gun toting deplorables are keeping this country functioning! I guess they decided not to stay in bed crying!”

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS SO FAR: Six Interim Lessons.

HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO THIS? We get fan mail.

M*A*S*H MEETS THE CORONAVIRUS:

CBS AND PBS FINALLY MENTION THE JOE BIDEN SEXUAL ASSAULT…BARELY. 

Evergreen:

UPDATE: Joe Concha of The Hill tweets, “CNN’s first story on Tara Reade’s sexual misconduct allegations against Joe Biden from back in 1993 below. Context: CNN posted more than 700 stories on Christine Blasey Ford’s accusations against Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.”

I think they were shamed by Mollie Hemingway’s Federalist article on Thursday to put something on the board: CNN Flooded Zone With Kavanaugh Coverage. Hasn’t Mentioned Biden’s Accuser Once.

(Updated and bumped.)

STILL MORE REASONS TO BOYCOTT CHINA: Hong Kong: High-profile democracy activists arrested.