Megan McArdle: Dangerous groupthink at the CDC

By Megan McArdle. Excerpts:

"If you watch the YouTube video of the now-infamous November meeting of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, you’ll hear Chairman José Romero thank everyone for a “robust discussion.” Shortly thereafter, the committee unanimously agreed that essential workers should get vaccinated ahead of the elderly, even though they’d been told this would mean up to 6% more deaths. This decision was supported in part by noting that America’s essential workers are more racially diverse than its senior citizens.

On Dec. 20, after the public belatedly noticed this attempted geronticide, the advisory panel walked it back"

"the discussion of whether to prioritize essential workers was anything but robust. The committee left only 10 minutes for it, during which not one of those 14 intelligent and dedicated health professionals suggested adopting the plan that kills the fewest people. Nor did anyone run out of time to make that point. A condensed but highly representative sample:

“This is where we can really elevate the issue of health equity.”

“If we’re serious about valuing equity … we need to have that baked in early on in the vaccination program.”

“Strongly agree … for equity reasons …”

“I think equity is a priority.”

“I want to applaud the entire conversation today around the emphasis on equity and identifying that the racial, ethnic and low-income disparities in the impact of COVID warrants prioritization of essential workers.”"

"deprioritizing seniors would also deprioritize older minorities, the highest-risk group"

"The World Health Organization told us travel bans don’t work, apparently because they harm tourist economies; then we were told masks don’t work, apparently because experts worried that hoarding them would leave health care workers without personal protective equipment; the public health community fell suddenly silent about the dangers of large gatherings during the George Floyd protests; a presentation to a government advisory committee described thousands of potential additional deaths as “minimal” compared with pursuing racial and economic equity; Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted he’d been lowballing his estimates of the point at which we’ll reach herd immunity."