Health and Sanity category archive
Stories of the Fall 0
Der Spiegel interviews two economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, in an attempt to figure out what the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed about health care in the United States.
They are not optimistic.
Here’s a bit:
DER SPIEGEL: Is it possible to identify the point when things started to go wrong in the U.S.?
Deaton: One great question to ask is: Why doesn’t America have a strong federal welfare state with health care like other European countries do? One answer is the issue of race. In the middle of the 20th century, it was the southern senators of the Democratic party who blocked any consideration of publicly funded health care. People don’t like to pay for services that go to people that don’t look like them, especially when they are black.
It’s a tough read, but a worthwhile one.
Tales of the Trumpling: Snapshots of Trickle-Down Trumpery (Updated) 0
Addendum:
Apparently, the noose had been there for some time without having been remarked on.
That doesn’t make it any less disgusting. A hangman’s noose is a complex knot; it doesn’t get tied by accident.
The Grievance Train 0
Sam and his caller discuss the irrationality of equating a stay-at-home order during a pandemic with slavery or internment camps.
Going Viral on the Disinformation Superhighway 0
After examining what percentage of tweets about the coronavirus contain misinformation and downright falsehoods (hint: far too much), Phil Reed, writing at Psychology Today Blogs, moves on to examine why others pick them up and spread them. His answer will not bolster your faith in humans as rational creatures (but, these days, what does?). Here’s the nub; follow the link for the evidence and citations (emphasis added):
The Medicine Show 0
Will Bunch argues that it is all show and no medicine.
Standing Out from the Herd 0
Sweden’s experiment in “herd immunity” against COVID-19 has not worked out well.
A False Choice 0
At the Inky, Robert I. Field explains that the notion that you can somehow choose between the economy and public health is–er–misguided. An excerpt:
Meanwhile, PoliticalProf takes a look at the stock market.
All That Was Old Is New Again 0
Ina fascinating discussion, David speaks with Tulane professor John Barry about the 1918 flu epidemic.
Numbers Gaming, Reprise 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Matthew Edlund untangles the numbers about COVID-19 testing and fatalities and what they say about the Trump administration’s failure to deal with the pandemic. A nugget (emphasis added):
Lots of people died.
Now when people around the world call the CDC no one calls back.
Numbers Gaming 0
Matthew Fleischer looks at Georgia’s game of three-card monte with COVID-19 stats. An excerpt:
And yet data don’t lie. Or do they?
Thanks to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, we now know things did indeed look too good to be true.
Georgia’s coronavirus numbers looked so rosy because officials misrepresented the data in such a way it’s difficult to believe it wasn’t done on purpose.
Aside:
One of the links to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the one cited around the phrase “misrepresented the data” in the excerpt above, is broken. Try this one instead.