OT: Corona virus

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Michigan Health Center Workers Stage “Fake Patients” In COVID19 Testing Line For CBS News
May 6, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQWRCEC ... e=youtu.be


Video

The history of television news staging filmed broadcasts is really sop.

[Canoerebel]

I assume you're kidding here. If not, we operate on such different planes that we can't have fruitful conversations about this. If you think an allegation that a governor is willing to trade lives for profit....really?

ORIGINAL: obvert

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

I read the whole thing. I've also read other articles and understand the point Abbott (and most everybody else) has been making. Yes, there are issues with easing countermeasures. We think they are manageable and we think it's worth doing. I have no issue with that position given the complexities of the situation.

The only issue I have is with how his opponent characterized the governor. You didn't denounce that, but I'm pretty sure you don't find it acceptable.

Without the context of the behind the scenes conversation made public, it's hard to understand the point the opponent is making. When you see it and have read the whole thing, it makes much more sense.

Why denounce something that is obviously a targeted political statement? That happens on both sides as you point out. We don't have to look far to see that.

The important point is to see both sides, and that is what journalism did in this case by clearly identifying parties, giving context, and showing each position. If this was a really smart and biased take on this story they would have left out the opponent's comment. That just gives anyone on the other side a way to divert from the actual situation to focus on the so-called "loathsome" critique.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Kull

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Kull, good to see you! You haven't posted in here in about six weeks, I think. Glad to see you back.

Thanks man, all is well with the family. It felt like I had something worthwhile to add in terms of pulling data and trying to analyze what was really going on in Italy - the hardest hit place at the time with data which seemed reliable. Especially since the trajectory was heading up and the projections were calling for an apocalypse.

But since then it's become apparent that ALL the data we are seeing - including deaths - is being manipulated (and therefore unreliable), and the projections are little more than dart board estimates. Especially now that we're beginning to see the first antibody studies and those are showing how far the true mortality rate deviates from the "official" numbers. And that's without accounting for the fact that perhaps 1/2 or more of the Covid deaths would have been classified as something else in the case of EVERY other dieseas.

When some politicians are deliberately preventing doctors from prescribing helpful medications and even mandating that Covid patients be inserted into unprepared Nursing homes, well, you know this isn't about a disease any longer.

[MakeeLearn]

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

You know the argument about the lockdown causing secondary health problems?

I think we are there. There is anxiety breaking out all over. 8 year olds with insomnia. The moms calling in worried about their kids look like THEY need a psychiatrist. Palpitations, severe reflux with esophagitis. I am handing out omeprazole and famotidine like Christmas candies. I can't find anyone to do talk therapy so I can pass the baton a bit. The health system is suffering staggering economic losses, mostly because of loss of elective procedures. We have one medical assistant furloughed, the office RN who used to do the phone triage is farmed out to do COVID testing. Everybody wants a f'ing COVID blood test because they had a fever in January. I just want to get on sailing yacht and sail to Papaete or something...and I get seasick easy.

Yep. I see it.

[Canoerebel]

Mortality in New York dropped to 232 today. Yesterday's number was 260. These are substantially below the IHME projection. In fact, they're not even within the margin of error.

John Dillworth has dropped into the thread a few times the past few days, so I he's probably doing okay. Perhaps he'll give an onsite update soon. I hope so.

[Cap Mandrake]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Michigan Health Center Workers Stage “Fake Patients” In COVID19 Testing Line For CBS News
May 6, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQWRCEC ... e=youtu.be


Video

Oh man, that is pathetic.

[Canoerebel]

The situation in my county. Minimal new cases per day. It makes sense to ease countermeasures in jurisdictions like this one, to see if it's possible to ramp things up. We're 12 days into the easing process.

[Canoerebel]

Geez.

ORIGINAL: Cap Mandrake

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Michigan Health Center Workers Stage “Fake Patients” In COVID19 Testing Line For CBS News
May 6, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQWRCEC ... e=youtu.be


Video

Oh man, that is pathetic.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Obvert,

Newsguard, interesting browser addon. I did a little research on them...

Here is a site I frequent, oh, this is a perspective bias tool:

Homepage
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings


For their review of the daily beast
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/da ... media-bias

Putting the BBC in the middle of the road requires taking everything else on the site with a grain of salt.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: obvert



The important point is to see both sides

Correction: The important point is the see the correct side.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

The situation in my county. Minimal new cases per day. It makes sense to ease countermeasures in jurisdictions like this one, to see if it's possible to ramp things up. We're 12 days into the easing process.

Very interesting to see figures at such a local level. I'm not sure plotting total cases on the same graph as new cases is a particularly good way of showing the data as the patterns of the latter will be lost in the larger scale of the former.

I've had a rough go at plotting the daily new case data on it's own. It is a little difficult as the '0 days' aren't labeled and so I've had to eyeball estimate how many days there were in those gaps.

So I think you can definitely see the that feared exponential curve starting to develop up to 30th/31st March before it suddenly falls away. If you were to associate the sudden drop of cases with the introduction of lockdown measures (which is by no means a given - I think the guy whose interview Lowpe posted would argue that it represents people taking their own precautions before being 'locked down') that might suggest an period between infection and case recording of c.7 days. If that were the case then it is noteworthy that 12 days after restrictions being lifted there has not yet been a big surge. I guess it depends on the extent to which people have 'gone back to normal' after the restrictions have been lifted and whether that level of normality is sustainable.

[Canoerebel]

Thanks, Sammy. That's interesting.

This county locked down pretty early - around 3/10.

I think the mid-April spike represented an outbreak in a local nursing home (probably patients/staff tested at one time). I think, but I'm not sure, most of the earlier spike comes from the famous "choir outbreak" from an adjacent county.

The number of cases added since May 3 have been 0, as of noontime today.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Thanks, Sammy. That's interesting.

This county locked down pretty early - around 3/10.

The number of cases added since May 3 have been 0, as of noontime today.

Ok - I was just going off the dates for introduction of measures at a state level which were a couple of weeks later I think? How typical is it for counties that to be that far ahead of the state measures?

Again making the assumption of an association with lockdown measures and that big drop in daily cases at the end of March that would suggest a c.3 week lag if your county introduced things on the 10th. In which case it would be another week before we start seeing what happens?

The good news is that as you say nothing has happened yet [:)].

[Canoerebel]

Georgia counties and cities were free to impose their own measures deeply into March. Many or most did. The state came along late in March, mainly due to the fact that the local governments had a good handle on things. The statewide measures were basically the same that had already existed for about three weeks.

We discussed this progression in here at deep, unharmonious length. At least three forumites (one US, two UK) were adamant that leaving things to local jurisdictions in the US was a very, very, very bad thing. I countered that "pushing the power down" to the local level, whenever possible, is a good thing. I think this resulted from a deep divide. Some people are comfortable with big government; others prefer small government. Some people want national decisions, some want local. Some want national healthcare, others prefer private (or as private as possible).

Much later (about a week ago) I wondered aloud in this thread if the local decision-making might have been one reason that Georgians haven't engaged in the kinds of protests seen in so many states. When it's your neighbor making decisions, perhaps one doesn't feel powerless. Also, the precautions seemed sensible and most everyone was aboard.

[Sammy5IsAlive]

Thanks! Very interesting.

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Michigan Health Center Workers Stage “Fake Patients” In COVID19 Testing Line For CBS News
May 6, 2020


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQWRCEC ... e=youtu.be


Video

The history of television news staging filmed broadcasts is really sop.

To be fair, if you listen to the whole thing it's quite possible that CBS was not aware that the testing line was staged. However, when you hear the commentary on the morning show which used the footage, it was clearly intended to drive the "not enough testing" agenda currently being pushed by those on the left as an excuse to continue indefinite lockdowns.

Edit: In order to conceal his identity, the "insider" who captured the video is masked and has a heavily altered voice during the sitdown interview with Veritas. However, throughout the camera video you can hear his unaltered voice as he talks with the other employees. Ooops!

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Obvert,

Newsguard, interesting browser addon. I did a little research on them...

Here is a site I frequent, oh, this is a perspective bias tool:

Homepage
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings


For their review of the daily beast
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/da ... media-bias

Putting the BBC in the middle of the road requires taking everything else on the site with a grain of salt.

Nah, it is a perspective rating.

[Lowpe]

New York and California are infamous for having the most aggressive out of state audits.


Cuomo: Out-of-State Health Care Workers Who Came to New York to Help Now Subject to NY State Income Tax



https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/05/c ... ncome-tax/

[Sammy5IsAlive]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Obvert,

Newsguard, interesting browser addon. I did a little research on them...

Here is a site I frequent, oh, this is a perspective bias tool:

Homepage
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings


For their review of the daily beast
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/da ... media-bias

Putting the BBC in the middle of the road requires taking everything else on the site with a grain of salt.

Nah, it is a perspective rating.

One of the things I find interesting in this thread are the similarities between some of the commentary on the media seen here and that which I've seen over the last years from Corbyn/Labour supporters in the UK. The latter are convinced that the 'MSM' (television/radio/print journalism) is institutionally right-wing and that it has been (now was) conspiring to frustrate and prevent any sort of success from Corbyn's Labour. The BBC is seen by them as one of the worst offenders - a wolf in sheep's clothing.

At the same time for the last few years the Conservative party has been convinced that the BBC has been pushing a 'soft left' anti-Brexit agenda.

For me if they are managing to upset both sides of the argument they must be doing something right!

As a news organisation at least I'd suggest the BBC is pretty much as down the middle as you are going to get. That side of things is separate from it's role as a 'content creator' in which it has no explicit obligation to be 'impartial'. That separation is not just an airy-fairy ideal - it is a fundamentally expressed in the Royal Charter under which it operates.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Obvert,

Newsguard, interesting browser addon. I did a little research on them...

Here is a site I frequent, oh, this is a perspective bias tool:

Homepage
https://www.allsides.com/media-bias/media-bias-ratings


For their review of the daily beast
https://www.allsides.com/news-source/da ... media-bias

I've used them before as well. The issue is that they are also user rated, so it all depends on who visits and cares enough to rate a site. That at least pushes their metrics a bit and who knows who visits?