So we're all supposed to "prepare for blizzard conditions" just because the scientific establishment and the media say so? And anyone who says it will be sunny and 70 is canceled?
All's I'm saying is, lots of $ changing hands in snow shovel industry. Do your own meteorology.
Italy has banned weddings and funerals for 16 million people. Japan has closed schools for a month. France and Iraq have banned public gatherings. The U.N. has canceled all physical meetings to address climate change. Americans are uncertain what to do about Coachella.
The vaccine shortage doesn't need to exist. Pfizer and Moderna could share their design with the dozens of other pharma companies who stand ready to produce their vaccines and end the pandemic.
The thing is if shutdowns and social distancing work perfectly and are extremely effective it will seem in retrospect like they were totally unnecessary overreactions.
This is part of a dangerous trend in reporting each allergic reaction as news. A million people have been vaccinated. A few had allergic reactions. All turned out fine. More will occasionally happen. They don’t all need headlines. It inaccurately skews perception of risk.
A Boston physician said he developed a severe allergic reaction after receiving Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine on Thursday. He self-administered his EpiPen and recovered quickly. Severe allergic reactions from the vaccine remain a rarity, experts said.
I was skeptical, but the NBA bubble actually worked. It’s a testament to human ingenuity and resilience how quickly we can reinvent things and get people back to work, safely and effectively, when a group of billionaires has a direct financial stake in making it happen.
Some people won't get vaccinated because of a conspiracy theory that vaccines are tracking devices, while carrying actual tracking devices in their pockets and using them to post about vaccines.
Remember when people said the pandemic would be a great equalizer? It turns out the 614 billionaires in the U.S. grew their net worth by almost $1 trillion dollars while congress spent nine months debating whether working people who've been ordered not to work should get $600.
Cancelling medical debt is a slippery slope. The next thing you know, people would be calling ambulances and showing up to ERs seeking help without any fear of personal financial catastrophe.
“I’m running 5 minutes late” = I’m running 10 minutes late
“I’m running 10 minutes late” = I’m running 20 minutes late
“in traffic” = just got in a car
“leaving now” = disoriented, not dressed, was fully asleep three seconds ago
(!!!!) New York City health officials reported zero deaths related to the novel coronavirus for the first time since the start of the pandemic, almost exactly fourth months after the state's first official death was recorded on March 11.
Cancel culture, social justice warriors, twitter mafia, outrage mobs, PC culture, hysteria ... and tomorrow there will be a new term, to broadly delegitimize the basic act of people speaking up, rather than engaging with actual cases and arguments
A virus that was new to the human species became widespread a year ago. In the early days, experts made recommendations based on what little we knew. Those changed as new facts came in. That's how this is supposed to work. Updating recommendations isn't hypocrisy, it's honesty.
So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. “Give me five bees for a quarter,” you’d say. Now where were we? Oh yeah. The important thing was I had an onion on
"Trump cleared me for the antibody therapy that he had received, which I am convinced saved my life," Carson wrote.
Carson rose in politics after saying Obamacare was "the worst thing since slavery." He's now been saved by government-funded healthcare allocated by the president.
It’s March. By May the U.S. is expected to have enough vaccines for everyone. Cases are way down. But they’re still very high, and in a tenuous plateau. Ending precautions now is like entering the last miles of a marathon and taking off your shoes and eating several hot dogs.
Very weird to hear things like "that was during COVID" or "as we emerge from the pandemic" while every day 1,000+ people die in the U.S. alone, and 100,000+ are hospitalized, the highest levels since winter. Didn't need to happen but it is.
The coronavirus briefings should be on CSPAN and transcripts should be public. The role of journalistic institutions—including TV networks and media companies like twitter—isn’t to give a huge unfiltered platform for an hour every day. It’s to highlight news with factual context.
Nationally there’s no “second wave.” There’s one long wave. We’ve been in a plateau of around 20,000 cases and 1,000 deaths a day, largely among minority and vulnerable populations. Reopening will cause spikes, but calling them a second wave denies the reality of what’s going on.
Trauma surgeons stand for intensive 10 hour procedures without their masks slipping below their noses. Everyone should be able to make it through the grocery store.
This virus is really, really not a place for punditry. Experts study effective outbreak responses and live for these moments. Get them as the guests on the radio and cable news shows, even if they're kind of boring and seem nervous. Those are marks of a good scientist.
It’s being framed like a battle for the soul of the country, but tonight’s election basically determines whether the federal government will be able to pass some extremely centrist legislation in coming years or barely function at all.
A missing element in harrowing stories of overwhelmed hospitals and exhausted staff is the decades of CEOs/consultants working to maximize profit and extract maximum value from every employee and ICU bed at all times, leaving hospitals with as little surge capacity as possible.
“I'm sometimes asked: when will there be enough [women on the supreme court]? And I say, when there are nine. People are shocked. But there'd been nine men, and nobody raised a question about that." RBG
It doesn't truly matter if a president were treated for a heart attack, stroke, or other condition. What matters is ability to understand information, process and synthesize it, communicate thoughtfully, and act accordingly. That's already not happening.
Representative Katie Porter just got CDC director Robert Redfield to commit to making coronavirus testing free for anyone regardless of insurance. That’s big.
Actual interesting point is that bombs are of course illegal and tragedies like Austin are rare.
The number of people in the U.S. killed by explosives in 2015 was 8.
Gun deaths were 36,252.
Having 70% of people vaccinated is sort of like having 70% of people stop at red lights. It’s a lot safer than zero percent, but also not time to shrug and say we’ve done all we can.
Yes we’re all very likely getting infected by this virus at some point(s).
But we’re also likely to get in car accidents at some point(s). That doesn’t mean you close your eyes and let go of the wheel.
So far the best part of Obama's memoir comes 567 pages in, when he's being blamed by Republicans for not fixing BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill fast enough. One of the few moments where it feels like he's speaking unencumbered. And like maybe his editor was partly asleep.
In the end, everyone will have a dog. After the pandemic, if you meet someone without a dog, you'll become suspicious. "How did you survive without a dog?" you'll ask, your hand moving slowly toward the wooden stake in your pocket.
“Racism and bigotry are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. ... The only way to destroy them is to expose them, to reveal the insidious evil they really are."
-Stan Lee writing in a comic book in 1968
To those who'll inevitably note that the U.S. hit a record high case count a few weeks after all the BLM protests started, and then imply the two are related: The city with the most widespread protests was New York, which hit a record low today.
You know when you see a commercial for a drug (U.S. only) like cialis or lyrica or eliquis or mumira or xeljanz or celebrex or abilify or chantix or viagra or boniva?
And the second half is calmly but quickly listing 47 things that could go wrong?
The J&J vaccine now has 1.
It is no longer mandatory to stay in the right lane while driving. A majority of motor vehicle collisions are not fatal. Individuals who are at high risk of dying can choose to wear a medical-grade bubble suit whenever they enter a car, or simply avoid travel. That is all.
Pausing vaccination to look into a possible one in a million side effect may scare people. It could just as easily be seen as reassuring, proof that close attention is being paid to, and extremely high priority put on, vaccine safety.
I’ve heard from people who are getting vaccines because they have chronic conditions that they don’t want to disclose, and so feel conflicted sharing that they got vaccinated. There’s no need to feel guilty. The system prioritized you. Take it and let people know it went well.
Trump tells Hannity that he "very recently" "aced" a cognitive test: "I took it at Walter Reed, a medical center, in front of doctors, and they were very surprised"
One weird thing is the overlap in the Venn diagram of people willing to take hydrochlorothiazide—on the basis that anything with a hypothetical chance of helping is worth trying—and people unwilling to get vaccinated despite overwhelming evidence that vaccines work.
I’ve been tolerant of the restrictions surrounding gravity. I’ve worn the required parachutes while skydiving. I’ve used “staircases” to descend tall buildings. I’ve even exercised caution around crevices and open wells.
But enough is enough. We need our lives back.
My favorite writing advice for academics isn’t to ‘dumb it down.’ It’s to assume a reader isn’t especially familiar with your area of expertise but is overall more intelligent than you.
I'd be more interested to read like 60 People Under 60 Who Were Totally Lost at 30 But Figured Out What Makes Life Meaningful Without Being Obsessed With Their Careers But Also Still Paid Down Their Student Loans and Managed to Afford Real Estate in A Major U.S. City.
Biden is vaccinated. He’s at a distance, while working with a staff that should also have been vaccinated, in a space that should be very well ventilated. He shouldn’t need a mask. It’s a symbol of solidarity to wear one. It’s good.
This tape is from March.
If I make it to 77 as a journalist, I promise not to withhold information of global importance for 6 months during an emergency until my book goes on sale.
President Trump acknowledged to the journalist Bob Woodward that he knowingly played down the coronavirus earlier this year even though he was aware it was “deadly” and vastly more serious than the seasonal flu
Breaking: some car drivers are reportedly experiencing achiness in their ankles related to the use of brake pedals. Millions are expected to hold off on any further use of brakes until more is known.
The future of media is 10,000 personalities branding themselves as critics of 'the media' and 'the narratives' for every 1 reporter who's trying to do necessary journalism for barely a fraction of their income, whose name you don't remember because they didn't make it about them.
The reason COVID restrictions/guidelines have been rolled back discreetly rather than triumphantly is that 400-500 people still dying every day in the U.S. and no one is comfortable saying that's acceptable. Only comfortable acting like it.
Kavanaugh says he's concerned that he may never be able to coach again, apparently due to standards of recreational basketball leagues, while arguing for a position on the Supreme Court.
I don’t think anyone “has a right to” drinking water, as it’s not literally enumerated in the constitution.
Those who disagree can simply travel to other states that have public fountains or troughs from which to drink.
The next few months of the pandemic will be like the last few miles of a marathon: far more difficult than the first 20 miles. Lots of opportunities to stop running. A lot will come down to whether or not the people in charge of the marathon decide to give people water.
We need emergency testing and triage clinics right now. They need to be free and easily accessible. Early-stage sick people and contacts can’t be left to wait for a doctor’s appointment while shedding virus, and they need a better option than bringing it into a crowded ER.
One time I got invited to the National Geographic gala in DC. So obviously I said yes. After dinner they started thanking donors. They named people who gave $1K. Then $10K. Then $100K. And then a guy who gave a MILLION. To the GEOGRAPHY BEE. And he stands up and it’s Alex Trebek.
The economy doesn’t improve by writing ‘reopen’ on a calendar. The economy improves by substantively preventing, identifying, understanding, and treating the disease.
Basically you wear a mask because you care about others. You believe in the power of small gestures to accumulate to great effect. Maybe nothing more succinctly epitomizes the Trump presidency than his refusal to wear a mask.
Okay, here’s my idea. The U.S. doesn’t want war. But we have a surplus of truckers who really, really love freedom and really want to take a stand.
So maybe instead of parking on DC streets they might agree to be airlifted to the Ukrainian border and park their trucks there?
In the heart of a pandemic, cities and states that didn’t have the money to test and treat and hospitalize sick people, or to offer safe self-quarantine spaces and make shelters and jails safer, suddenly have the resources to monitor and take in busloads of protesters.
If there are gonna be empty lanes at the sides of the Olympic pool, they should ask regular people to swim along there to serve as context for just how fast everyone is swimming.
It’s funny how airlines delay and cancel flights at the last minute for no clear reason and shrug it off like “life is unpredictable but you’ll get there eventually!” But if you try to reschedule a ticket six weeks in advance they’re like “The penalty is $250 or your first child”
On NPR this morning when asked why the president keeps insulting a dead war hero, McCain's former advisor Mark Salter said offhandedly "I don't know, I'm not a child psychologist"