We’ve been wearing one, not because we really think it keeps us or others safer, but simply out of current social etiquette. And we only do it inside, not when simply outside.
[Update a while later]
People are silently withdrawing their consent from the State.
Some not-so-silently, too.
[Update Saturday morning]
Mask shaming is just the latest form of virtue signaling.
[Bumped]
…seems to play a role in coronavirus response. I take supplements, but the cruel irony of the stay-at-home orders is that, for many, it makes it hard for the body to produce it naturally.
How America arrived at the dumb reopening.
Elon has had enough of California, at least when it comes to making cars, if not rockets.
…but that’s no reason to not reopen Jurassic Park.
It’s pretty clear that those most at risk are those with other underlying conditions (most notably, I think, obesity and diabetes, which themselves often go hand in hand).
High blood pressure is one of them, but has anyone seen any numbers that indicate that it can be in and of itself? I’d bet that the rate of bad outcomes for someone (like me) who only has hypertension is pretty low. The reason that it is listed as one of the underlying conditions is that large number of people with other condition also have it. That is, other than my slightly superannuated condition and that, I don’t think I’m at high risk.
Why they’re winning. The “elites” (as has been the case for many years now) have not covered themselves with glory here.
A code review.
Good lord.
This reminds me an awful lot of the code that was leaked from CRU. S**t climate coding has done a lot of economic damage, but nowhere near as rapidly as this has, with tens of thousands of deaths to boot.
[Update a few minutes later]
A devastating conclusion:
All papers based on this code should be retracted immediately. Imperial’s modelling efforts should be reset with a new team that isn’t under Professor Ferguson, and which has a commitment to replicable results with published code from day one.
On a personal level, I’d go further and suggest that all academic epidemiology be defunded. This sort of work is best done by the insurance sector. Insurers employ modellers and data scientists, but also employ managers whose job is to decide whether a model is accurate enough for real world usage and professional software engineers to ensure model software is properly tested, understandable and so on. Academic efforts don’t have these people, and the results speak for themselves.
Same with climate modeling. Get it out of the universities. Particularly Penn State.
[Update a while later]
What Ferguson’s booty call tells us about our “elites.”
[Friday-afternoon update]
The model that panicked the world was junk.
Thoughts on taking it seriously.
This would have a huge impact on policy.