Ok, I like to stretch things with wack analogies. I regret having done so now.

However, I still can doubt the veracity of a conclusion based on statistics. First, a pandemic’s statistics are difficult to trust. The ways they are reported introduce a lot of error. I believe that trustworthy statistics will only become available in the future. Does any conclusion drawn today have a confidence factor that makes a drawn conclusion strong? Secondly, many people recognize that China likely has misreported their statistics. Which renders that data useless.

So am I to trust a statistician whose data is inherently unreliable? Or the physician whose specialty is infectious disease and has been working in the field for many years.

 

That wasn't the reason.

That comment explains a lot to me, what I've suspected for a long time.

 

Or the physician whose specialty is infectious disease and has been working in the field for many years.

Name one physician who is alive today that has dealt with a pandemic similar to the Wuhan virus.

 

Name one physician who is alive today that has dealt with a pandemic similar to the Wuhan virus.

Does Ebola count? ... it wasn't a pandemic, thank God, but I bet lots of things were learnt from that epidemic.

 

Does Ebola count? ... it wasn't a pandemic, thank God, but I bet lots of things were learnt from that epidemic.

Nope. No aerosol transmission.

 

There are thousands of ID physicians who know or should know MRSA, HIV, flu and other major infectious diseases in the past 50 years. True, physicians of 1918 are no longer practicing, but the lessons from that pandemic are not forgotten. The problem, on some sites, is when attractive radiologists give opinions on ID, it is news. Dr. Fauci is also conflicted.

But in the end, Wuhan is unique. Highly infectious, no prior exposure or immunity anywhere on earth. Even the demographics of those hardest hit are completely different than any previous pandemic.

It's all models, and that's all we have right now. And most of the models have been exceptionally wrong in their predictive power.

We can use all the expertise available to us -- regardless of background. Even a quack is sometimes right.

This world-wide quarantine must end -- sooner than later. Otherwise, people are going to begin starving to death (or killed for other reasons, like riots).

 

We can use all the expertise available to us -- regardless of background. Even a quack is sometimes right.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day (in the US).

Some of Trump's advisors are deeply conflicted, like Fauci and his appointee, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett (Ph.D.). Why not open the dialog to ID practitioners and pathologists and give them the data? Instead, we hear from attractive radiologists. Sad, but unfortunately, that is how politics of all parties work.

 

Even a broken clock is right twice a day (in the US).

Some of Trump's advisors are deeply conflicted, like Fauci and his appointee, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett (Ph.D.). Why not open the dialog to ID practitioners and pathologists and give them the data? Instead, we hear from attractive radiologists. Sad, but unfortunately, that is how politics of all parties work.

No offense, but you're obviously listening to demonstrably fake news.

We are in an election cycle. Don't forget that.

 

​

 

No offense, but you're obviously listening to demonstrably fake news.

We are in an election cycle. Don't forget that.

There is NO such thing as fake news. There is biased news, news you don’t want to hear, news you choose to ignore...

But there is no fake news.

Fake news is nothing more than a label placed upon something people dislike. It is a label given for its propaganda value exclusive of content. It has nothing to do with the news nor news reliability. It’s is not the news we should critique, but the integrity of the news.

“Fake news” is a label given to a technique used to gaslight, and a form of abuse and mind control.

Don’t become a zombie.

At its best, fake news should be called what it is. A lie. And lies can be proven. Fake news cannot.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...rcraft-carrier-are-symptom-free-idUSKCN21Y2GB

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sweeping testing of the entire crew of the coronavirus-stricken U.S. aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt may have revealed a clue about the pandemic: The majority of the positive cases so far are among sailors who are asymptomatic, officials say.

The possibility that the coronavirus spreads in a mostly stealthy mode among a population of largely young, healthy people showing no symptoms could have major implications for U.S. policy-makers, who are considering how and when to reopen the economy.

 

...there is no fake news.

Sure there is.

But I can't prove it to you because that would violate this site's TOS.

 

Fake News aka Pseudodoxia Epidemica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudodoxia_Epidemica

Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Enquiries into very many received tenets and commonly presumed truths, also known simply as Pseudodoxia Epidemica or Vulgar Errors, is a work by Thomas Browne challenging and refuting the "vulgar" or common errors and superstitions of his age. It first appeared in 1646 and went through five subsequent editions, the last revision occurring in 1672. The work includes evidence of Browne's adherence to the Baconian method of empirical observation of nature, and was in the vanguard of work-in-progress scientific journalism during the 17th-century scientific revolution. Throughout its pages frequent examples of Browne's subtle humour can also be found.

Mischievous agents of misinformation portrayed are “Saltimbancoes, Quacksalvers, and Charlatans”.

 

Fake News aka Pseudodoxia Epidemica

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudodoxia_Epidemica


Mischievous agents of misinformation portrayed are “Saltimbancoes, Quacksalvers, and Charlatans”.

"Vulgar errors" have had a significant resurgence over the past few decades.

We are in need of a new era of Enlightenment.

 

https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=112672

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, assigned to USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), died from COVID-19 April 13 at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam.

Thacker tested positive for COVID-19 March 30, was removed from the ship and placed in isolation on Naval Base Guam. On April 9 (local date), Thacker was found unresponsive during a daily medical check and transferred to Naval Base Guam via ambulance where he was placed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

 

https://www.kptv.com/general/contam...cle_30a23baa-5e3b-5146-ac65-b6ddb0685821.html

(CNN) -- Contamination in manufacturing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention test for the coronavirus caused weeks of delays that slowed the US response to the pandemic, multiple health officials have told CNN, a problem that stemmed in part from the CDC not adhering to its own protocols, according to a US Food and Drug Administration spokesperson.

"CDC made its test in one of its laboratories, rather than in its manufacturing facilities," the FDA spokesperson told CNN on Saturday. "CDC did not manufacture its test consistent with its own protocol."

 

https://www.kptv.com/general/contam...cle_30a23baa-5e3b-5146-ac65-b6ddb0685821.html

But...but....we're supposed to trust the experts!

 

"Vulgar errors" have had a significant resurgence over the past few decades.

We are in need of a new era of Enlightenment.

If you read your history, Joey... the so called Enlightenment ended up turning its back on common sense and concluded in the era of Terror.

 

If you read your history, Joey... the so called Enlightenment ended up turning its back on common sense and concluded in the era of Terror.

It also concluded in the United States of America and our Constitution.

I'll take the good with the bad.

 

It also concluded in the United States of America and our Constitution.

I'll take the good with the bad.

It's always a cycle of things. History, that is. Unfortunately, good things are are always born through painful spasms.

 

It's always a cycle of things. History, that is. Unfortunately, good things are are always born through painful spasms.

And the Dark Ages were oh so great a place to be. Especially for us intellectuals.