Coronavirus dashboard for August 11: evidence that the Delta wave may be peaking in the earliest hit States My framework of analyzing the economy via leading, coincident, and lagging indicators continues to come in handy at looking at the course of the pandemic. At the beginning of June, I flagged that the number of cases […]
Politics and the Pandemic: Why I Think Paul Krugman Is Wrong Krugman has a piece in the New York Times today that offers an explanation for why Republicans oppose every measure—vaccination, masking, limits on indoor gathering—that could reverse the pandemic. He says it’s because the Democrats support them and that Biden would take credit for reduced caseloads, […]
Kamikaze anti-vaxers, Infidel753 blog INFIDEL753, Portland, Oregon, writes at a blog of his own name Infidel 753. Describes himself as an individualist, transhumanist, socialist, atheist, liberal, optimist, pragmatist, and regular guy — it has been my great good fortune to live my whole life free of “spirituality” of any kind. I know Infidel from Crooks […]
Antivax Memes Based on various sources, including the recent NY Times podcast with interviews of vaccine resisters/hesitant, here’s my list of common elements. 1. Assuming the sole criterion for whether to take the vaccine is its effect on your own health—not taking into account whether you may infect someone else. Antivax people nearly always justify their choice […]
The most common proposals for pressuring people to vaccinate involve either vaccine mandates or vaccine passports. As some of the comments on my previous post suggest, there is another option, viz., making the unvaccinated responsible for the cost of their covid treatment. In theory, this can be done either by denying insurance coverage to people […]
Peter Singer: The reason is that we are not good at protecting ourselves against very small risks of disaster. Each time we get into a car, the chance that we will be involved in an accident serious enough to cause injury, if we are not wearing a seat belt, is very small. Nevertheless, given the […]
Coronavirus dashboard for August 4: in which I see reason for optimism by New Deal democrat It seems pretty clear that Delta burns through the dry tinder very fast – on the order of 9 to 12 weeks from onset to peak, based on the experience of the UK and India, respectively. The US […]
What Does Vaccine Effectiveness Mean? by Peter Dorman When technical specialists adopt an everyday word, they often give it a meaning that differs from its everyday use. This can be misleading for nonspecialists, especially when little effort is made to explain the difference. A well-known example is “significance”, which means one thing when used in […]
An assortment of informational articles arriving at my in-box which I have reviewed and found to be interesting. Quite a bit of healthcare this time which I believe can be accessed by readers at Angry Bear. Tennessee won’t incentivize Covid shots — but pays to vax cows – POLITICO, August 2021 NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee […]
Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Saint Louis University discussing Senator Rand Paul’s outburst on the beginnings of the Covid-19 virus. “A little learning is a dangerous thing. Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” ~Alexander Pope By now, we’ve all seen the spectacle of […]