Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/16/trump-administration-wants-all.html
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the Drumpf administration’s authoritarian control over public data relating to the pandemic they have failed to handle is still a cause for worry.
Not to mention the regime’s addiction to lying and BSing. I know the MSM has to pretend that this latest move to consolidate power is a mere “cause for concern”, but I don’t see how anyone else with half brain can’t see it for what it is.
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It is now predictable that Administration policy response will match the sociopathy and psychopathy of the Real Estate Swindler.
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If we want to personalise this - and I for one do have no problems with this in that case - then please note that this is Peter Thiel’s PALANTIR sucking up the data, and analysing it for the White House.
Truly the shittiest dystopian timeline.
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The Federal Government really is at war with itself, isn’t it?
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So their argument is that an administrative department and a private company will be better at collecting epidemiological data than an institution of professional epidemiologists and data scientists?
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Well, “better” at least, if not actually better.
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can the hospitals just say no?
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I don’t know what the penalties might be for that, but I hope some heroic hospital staff find a way to leak the data to the CDC and the public.
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Philip DeFranco covered this on his YT channel yesterday, as it was mentioned in the BB post various hospitals were complaining about having to submit their data to various groups and agencies to the point that they were now needing to hire full time people just to take care of the additional workload of compiling and (re)submitting data. The problem is likely legitimate, but Trump’s government took that as an excuse to undermine the CDC and hoard the information because it was making Trump look bad (despite the fact that they’re doing that all on their own).
I really hope that something can be done to reverse this shitty decision because its a hazard to the public health.
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Well this isn’t worrying at all…
/s
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Sure this is completely Orwellian to have the govt control the data to control the message. Truly frightening. However, consider how they screw everything up it is my bet they will even screw this up it is just a matter of how much or badly.
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My estimate is that Canada won’t open the border for non-essential business and tourism from the US until about next June or July. The pandemic will infect at least 20 million Americans and kill a total of a half million by next May. dRumpf will lie about the COVID-19 infection rate until he’s out of office and Biden will have his hands full trying to keep the collapsed ‘healthcare’ system stumbling along and rebuild a shattered economy.
I hope my American relatives all make it through this but they are in Arizona and California so it’s especially worrisome.
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I’ve been thinking about that, too. Unfortunately, where I keep landing is that, since our healthcare system is inherently corrupt and driven by ideological entities like private enterprise and religious groups, you would get a skewed metric, anyhow. I can’t decide whether an overrun hospital would be more or less likely to submit data; on one hand, it may help them argue their case for more assistance, on the other local political pressures and a negative public perception may drive them away from reporting. Either way, it would end up a whole pile of useless data.
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Watch for the “official” data to show case counts and deaths coming under control in time for the election while newspapers are still publishing 50 page obituary sections.
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Welcome to BoingBoing. With your deft use of sarcasm, you’ll fit right in*.
*(Not being sarcastic. Welcome.)
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Ultimately wouldn’t matter because the CDC will refuse to take the data, or won’t release it to the public. Single point of failure in this (well, technically that point of failure is higher up the chain, but you get the point).
I will continue to monitor through the Johns Hopkins site, which gets it data direct from each state. It lags a little behind what even the CDC had, but at least I know it won’t be massaged while hidden away from public eye.
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Even if rogue data agents manage to feed a CDC that has split off into a completely independent entity and barricaded itself off, this still does what this human(?) wrecking-ball intends. To sow general doubt about who to believe, and give anyone who wants to turn a blind eye an alternative to point to and scream at their neighbor.
It’s so much easier to carry out your plans when you are totally ok with, if not actively working toward, breaking everything.
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Lots of those around here nowadays. Lack of public education for a few decades can do that.
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Trump told us explicitly in February “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
The current CDC hospital capacity dashboard:
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