How COVID-19 is affecting society

[Kara Spengler]

Just in case you didn't know how awesome Tom Hanks is...

Hanks for king of the world!!!

 

[Romana]

And, in contrast:

Protester at anti-lockdown march spotted with poster saying 'Sacrifice the weak'

No offense to my Tennessean friends, but I'm glad I don't live there right now.
And hugs to forum members who do have to live near people who want to sacrifice them!

 

[Sovereignty]

It's so easy to screw up a political message by not getting the facts right. The democrats have a target rich environment but can still aim poorly.

Case in point: Schiff On ‘Profound And Disturbing Echo’ Of Impeachment In Trump Pandemic Response | All In | MSNBC
Adam Schiff is my favorite figure from the impeachment, but after righteously indicting Trump yet again, he farts.

He refers to the flawed VA retrospective study where only older and sicker patient were given The Drug. A similar study in New York state found the same pattern, but it had better data which could be normalized to account for this bias. After normalizing the data, the drug was found to have neither a positive or negative effect. Preliminary study results suggest the drug Trump touted doesn't work for very sick coronavirus patients

Still Schiff uses The Drug as a way of attacking Trump saying the VA study showed it did more harm than good. The VA study shows no such thing. There was an obvious confounding factor that journalists and politicians have ignored. Correlation is not equivalent to causation.

Another case: Offering graphs of death totals by country. The political message is "See what a horrible job Trump is doing!"
The graphs should at least be normalized to account for differences in total population. Doing that reveals that Spain has a higher per capita death rate. One could regain the title for the US, after a fashion, by comparing just New York, New Jersey and Connectitut to the world, but that actually points out that the issue of death rates is more complicated than the simple political message supports. There are reasons why this region can be reasonably grouped together and produce a high death rate, and they have nothing to do with Trump.

I think advertisements by Republicans against Trump have done a better job of pointing out Trump's failings. It seems they are more skilled at delivering political messages which is a pity.

ETA: I'll offer a rule of thumb. If your political message allows getting distracted by issues like the ones raised here, it is too complicated. Simpler messages work better.

 

[detrius]

(Before you look it up, that Teenage Engineering OP-1 costs about US$ 1,300.)

 

[Fionalein]

(Before you look it up, that Teenage Engineering OP-1 costs about US$ 1,300.)

what a bargain compared to a Minimoog

 

[Cindy Claveau]

Adam Schiff is my favorite figure from the impeachment, but after righteously indicting Trump yet again, he farts.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Schiff, as a former prosecutor, knows EXACTLY what he's doing. But what exactly has changed since the Impeachment trial that indicates the Senate Repubs would let the next one slip past? McConnell and other R's are already screaming that Dems want "another Impeachment".

Damned right we do. If we can't do it before November, then we have to kick Trump out of office and let SDNY and a new DOJ take him to the woodshed in January (this is exactly what Trump is most afraid of). If we lose in November, then yeh we can indict and impeach him as many times as we want. There are no statutes of limitation on impeachment. If I were giving Schiff et al any advice, it would be to ignore the squeals of indignation and stop being "conservative" about the charges you're building. Throw the book at him and screw his 40% (optimistic) support.

Still Schiff uses The Drug as a way of attacking Trump saying the VA study showed it did more harm than good. The VA study shows no such thing. There was an obvious confounding factor that journalists and politicians have ignored. Correlation is not equivalent to causation.

In view of all the baloney that spews from DT's mouth every day, I don't think this is the hill to die on. But I also would never expect any Dems to be quiet when the R's are flooding the channel with unadulterated bullshit.

 

[Stora]

(Before you look it up, that Teenage Engineering OP-1 costs about US$ 1,300.)

Great bit of kit that is on my wish list.

 

[danielravennest]

So your source is what?

Given his user name, I'd say pulled it out of his ass while tweeting on the toilet.

Given the high antibody prevalence in several studies lately, I would predict the disease will wind down over the next few months because enough people will have already had it to reduce the R(o) below 1. That's not quite herd immunity, but in combination with social distancing, wearing masks, etc. if there are not enough people to infect, the chain of transmission could die out.

 

[Tirellia]

Meanwhile...

 

[Kara Spengler]

Given his user name, I'd say pulled it out of his ass while tweeting on the toilet.

Given the high antibody prevalence in several studies lately, I would predict the disease will wind down over the next few months because enough people will have already had it to reduce the R(o) below 1. That's not quite herd immunity, but in combination with social distancing, wearing masks, etc. if there are not enough people to infect, the chain of transmission could die out.

Well, some people are placing their bets on early 2021. Not just individuals as a few are big companies losing lots of money every day they are closed.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

It's perhaps sobering to realise that Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, is actually the sane member of the family.

 

[Kara Spengler]

It's perhaps sobering to realise that Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, is actually the sane member of the family.

Oh, we have plenty of those movement over there. Some of them showing up in plenty of ppe did not slow them down. Them being shown as astoturf did not slow them down. Telling them opening too soon will actually cause more damage did not slow them down. Various polls showing they are in the overwhelming minority did not slow them down.

 

[Jopsy Pendragon]

How about "Maskenelend" (literally 'mask misery')

 

[Kara Spengler]

How about "Maskenelend" (literally 'mask misery')

German makes words that short?

 

[Fionalein]

German makes words that short?

ne

 

[Romana]

This is more of a compressed sentence (courtesy of Google Translate), but it looks like a suitably long word, "VerdammtesjucktNiesen"
I was trying to think of something along the lines of Sid Caesar's gibberish but I'm too tired.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

‘We’d go bust in months’: restaurants at a loss over social distancing dilemma

News last week that people will have to be kept two metres apart until Christmas came as a body blow to the hospitality sector

www.theguardian.com

It's about the difficulties that British restaurants will face trying to re-open, but I'm sure the US will face similar challenges.

 

[Beebo Brink]

It's about the difficulties that British restaurants will face trying to re-open, but I'm sure the US will face similar challenges.

People just aren't grasping the full nature of the emergency we're facing. They're still stuck in a pre-COVID-19 worldview:

Restaurant trade collapsed in a matter of days: the recovery will, said Beckett, take many, many months.

Anyone measuring this impact in months is not facing reality.

Rather than spend government money propping up industries that will die -- restaurants, airlines, cruise ships -- money should go directly to the unemployed workers and industries that can rebound.

 

[Fionalein]

Anyone measuring this impact in months is not facing reality.

Welcome to reality meeting actionism...

Humanity by nature seems to be composed of gamblers. If timid politicians had not introduced lockdowns as a matter of weeks only maybe people would understand better, but honestly: I doubt it. Pressure will build up and restrictions will eventually fall...
In Germany right now industry lobbyists successfully urged politicians to slowly start opening up public live again as "we're back to good"... and the dumbed down population approves...

 

[Innula Zenovka]

People just aren't grasping the full nature of the emergency we're facing. They're still stuck in a pre-COVID-19 worldview:


Anyone measuring this impact in months is not facing reality.

Rather than spend government money propping up industries that will die -- restaurants, airlines, cruise ships -- money should go directly to the unemployed workers and industries that can rebound.

I'm not so sure about the restaurant industry dying.

I mean, sooner or later, for society and the economy to start functioning again, people are going to have to be able to eat indoors somewhere other than their own homes and to be able to travel far enough from home that they need to spend the night there.

That's difficult to do without hotels and restaurants.

How is a city of any size to function if all the workers there have to eat all their meals at home?