that’s where i have been watching, too, since Feb. or March. still, i find this an alarming development. i’m hoping for hospital data leakers.
7 Likes
They just want to streamline the process and get it to the top men as fast as possible.
11 Likes
“Your data belong to us.”
3 Likes
We’ll be down to 15 cases by the election
2 Likes
One thing to note is this shifts all reporting to a private company. From what I’ve read all decisions about where to allocate money and resources is to come from the data analyzed by this private company (data from elsewhere is not allowed to be considered). My suspicion is that the data will be “normalized” in some way, such as by combining it with certain demographic data (such as voter registration data), so that certain, more deserving municipalities and counties are allocated more of those resources, and certain other less deserving municipalities will be granted much less of those resources. All of course not open to scrutiny, since this is a private company and they “own the data” once it’s gathered, and private companies cannot be forced to follow rules and regulations (such as freedom of information act) in the same way that government entities can.
10 Likes
From day one Trump and his cronies have treated this crisis—for that matter, EVERY crisis to happen under his watch—like a PR/publicity problem instead of an actual problem. It doesn’t even occur to him to change the reality instead of changing the message. His many neuroses leave him utterly incapable of differentiating reality and television coverage.
12 Likes
I agree that “deaths from all causes” is a much more reliable statistic to judge the depth of the shithole we find ourselves in than “deaths confirmed to be caused by covid”, because, as has been noted before, many many states (Florida for example) go to great lengths to avoid allowing “Covid” on that death certificate, and testing is sill not easy to get approved for everywhere. Saying that we should only pay attention to confirmed covid cases grossly under counts the severity of the problem.
3 Likes
The problem there is that Conservatives like to make the baseless claim that “deaths from all causes” are up because people are dying from factors stemming from the lockdown instead of the pandemic itself.
“Well of COURSE overall deaths are up, because people are suffocating in those masks and people are committing suicide from not being able to return to work and people are having more heart attacks because they can’t go to the gym for exercise!”
12 Likes
Kinda like an autoimmune disease.
5 Likes
One thing I have heard about this specific category is that suicides are actually down, because often going into an office for work is a soul destroying experience in itself…
18 Likes
Yes, but conservatives often have difficulty imagining how anyone could maintain a sense of self-worth that isn’t intrinsically based on their contributions to the machinery of capitalism.
14 Likes
To be fair, I think that’s true of at least some democrats as well. But the GOP really leans into that protestant work ethic crap much harder, at least for the rest of us plebs.
10 Likes
The thing is, this is true, though - non-life-threatening procedures (including things like cacner therapies) are being put off in many jurisdictions, so the outcomes of stuff like that should be considered part of the death toll from covid-19, IMHO.
If folks are, for example, dying from strokes and other issues where they might have gone into the hospital sooner, but opted not to out of fear of catching covid-19 there, and/or no availability of beds, etc. etc. - those are “covid related deaths” in my book.
I think, IMHO, the difference between the conservative view and my own comes from what to do about it - they suggest we should open up so that, miraculously, hospital visits will somehow go down, whereas I think we should, you know, do what every other civilized country has done and listen to experts on how to reduce the caseload so people can once again be seen for less life-threatening issues before they become critical.
11 Likes
I give it a week until we’ve miraculously barreled toward 0 cases. And that the body bag shortage is “fake news”.
3 Likes
From where I’m sitting, it’s more like
6 Likes
6 Likes
Is “MSM” or “Mainstream Media” crossed over, so that it’s used by us normals? I thought it was originally a term of derision used by the likes of Hannity, Ben Garrison, and Glenn Beck. Don’t we just say “the media”? (Or is “the media” itself problematic because, now, we have to distinguish between “real media” and alt-right media?)
2 Likes
Every. Damn. Day.
10 Likes
“It’ll go away. Someday. Like a miracle.”
-Shitstained baboon orifice
6 Likes
I’ve seen it used by liberal and progressive bloggers going back to the Cheney Regency, as shorthand for the corporate mass media (including ostensibly liberal and non-profit outlets that have to cater to the lowest common denominator.
3 Likes
