Just more evidence that the health insurance industry is the 2nd most evil industry in the US, only behind arms mfrs. And they are giving them a run for their money.
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⊠and humans are generally linear thinkers. I have watched people I talk with just glaze over and shut down because the reality of such curves is truly so terrifying. Maybe Iâve got a bad case of confirmation bias.
Home sapiens sapiens cognitive [in]ability to understand exponential growth is IMO among the reasons why climate change is having such a hard time getting real traction in places where governmental inaction yields staggeringly huge financial gains.
Social media and âregularâ media then manipulate public hysteria through disinformation and both-side-ism.
These parallels (human response to COVID-19 vs climate change) to me are also terrifying.
Yale, yer a day late and a dollar short.
Hereâs hoping yer argument ainât all wrong:
Levity, and unicorn-chaser-esque, this important unscientific montage re: human brainâs many capabilities:
ETA: grammar
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Homeless people fear hunger during pandemic
Without access to preventive care, homeless people in Rio are exposed to coronavirus. With closed shops and suspension of social projects, getting food is more difficult. In favelas, lack of water causes apprehension.
Eduardo follows the news about the advance of the pandemic in Brazil through the covers of newspapers on a sidewalk stall where he exhibits various objects for sale that he pans in the trash. The repercussion of the initial cases on people from the political and higher-income world gives the impression that the problem is far from his universe.
Volunteers delivered soap and cleaning products to residents of Rocinha, a favela in Rio, so they can protect themselves from coronavirus. Many people in this neighbourhood lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
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For those trying to teach online:
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A California social media prankster claims he was hospitalized with the coronavirus â just days after posting a video of himself licking a toilet bowl for a nauseating online challenge.
I totally believe him.
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To poop on the parade a bit, itâs fairly easy to make âfastâ tests, just cut short the PCR amplification step. The downside is that you lose sensitivity to low levels of the virus. The press release seems fairly secretive about the accuracy and throughput/capacity questions - those are I think a bigger issue than raw speed.
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Anything that is proposed as a broad screening test has to have very high sensitivity, so you donât miss any (low false negatives.) The trade off to that is lower specificity, so you get more false positives. Finding the balance there is the key. I am all for quick, POC testing, but it needs to be accurate and proven before being deployed. Otherwise it just adds to the noise and leaves us even more in the dark about what we are dealing with.
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This is the same problem everywhere on the planet now. People with second homes thinking theyâre safer there, when the locals who live there full time know there isnât enough medical support at the best of times.
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Thank you. Scary shit. Infuriating. And so much for the idea that the U.S. is a âfirst-world country.â 
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It is a first-world country. I live in a third-world country (Finland).
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That is truly horrifying. And I suspect she may lose her job for doing that. Just as the ophthalmologist in Wuhan did. We need to understand that we are on our own. Docs will do the best we can. But we are on our own too. The system is fucked and so are we. Care for each other as best you can.
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In other doing-shit-at-random-for-no-discernible-reason news:
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I know, I know, Dr. PhilâŠ
But seriously, listen to this twit and you will hear what I run into here daily.
fyi - COVID-19 patients average time on ventilator: 11 - 21 days (vs. 3 - 4 days for non-COVID-19 patients). âWe have patients that have been 20 days 30 days on a ventilator. The longer you are on a ventilator, the more likely you are not going get off a ventilatorâ
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Iâve never watched more than a few minutes of Dr. Phil, but I donât think his typical interview ends with, âI really donât encourage anyone to beat the shit out of you. 
â
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About the whole âChurches couldnât possibly spread germsâ thing
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So for anyone into interesting numerology, we are at ~75,000 cases right now, and 7,500 are since this morning. Same pattern (roughly) with deaths. I am looking for ways to distance myself from this a bit today. And failing miserably.
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Try to take a mental health break⊠
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