COVID-19

[Spekkio]

Clearly an option piece. Not the same thing. And besides, that was before journalism took on the mantel of impartiality and purveyors of truth.

It wasn't in the OP Ed section. This is the front page of the paper.

But here's the point: all news is an opinion piece. Always has been, always will be. The choice of adjectives and adverbs can paint two very different pictures of the same factual event. Writers and editors know how to choose these words carefully to elicit a sense of emotion from the headline and piece, which is what sells.

I promise you can find similar pieces very easily after whatever landmark date you think the news became a 'purveyor of truth.' Hopefully without the infuriating substitution of f for s.

 

[wink]

It wasn't in the OP Ed section. This is the front page of the paper.

But here's the point: all news is an opinion piece. Always has been, always will be. The choice of adjectives and adverbs can paint two very different pictures of the same factual event. Writers and editors know how to choose these words carefully to elicit a sense of emotion from the headline and piece, which is what sells.

I promise you can find similar pieces very easily after whatever landmark date you think the news became a 'purveyor of truth.' Hopefully without the infuriating substitution of f for s.

I am not going to argue the layouts and editorial philosophies of 18th century papers. But I will say that finding a modern NYT style oped page in a 18th century paper would be difficult at best. Point was that piece was opinion no matter where it is printed. Most COVID pieces were clearly not opinion. And most were not even factually wrong. Facts were editorially manipulated or excluded to present the worse case. And the 5th estate which prides itself on questioning the government to keep them honest and fair has not done so in COVID reporting.

I dont much care if this is the case in other cases or in history. I know it has. We are talking about COVID now. And the media has been horrible.

 

[taxi1]

I think of journalism like the Hubble space telescope. Once they knew how the mirror distorted the image, they could correct for it.

 

[RedFive]

Yes. Linked below is a paper from 1790. (middle column first page - Congress gets paid too much and New England is too Arrogant).

The more things change...

Am I the only one impressed that pdf text recognition worked on that?

 

[nittany03]

I promise you can find similar pieces very easily after whatever landmark date you think the news became a 'purveyor of truth.' Hopefully without the infuriating substitution of f for s.

To paraphrase my freshman English composition prof, if you ask anyone the date the country went to shit, the date range they'd give you always turns out to be suspiciously close to when they personally entered puberty.

 

[Spekkio]

Most COVID pieces were clearly not opinion.

That's where you and I disagree. COVID-19 reporting, like all reporting, has a high inject of opinion.

What sounds more dire:

'NY sees record high 1000 new cases of COVID-19!'

vs

'1 in 10,000 NYers infected with COVID-19.'

Both are true statements. One gives people the impression of a big problem (opinion), the other is a benign statement making it sound like no big deal (also an opinion).

The media is a master at this craft. Always has been.

 

[PhrogLoop]

Am I the only one impressed that pdf text recognition worked on that?

You’ve been training that ML (Captcha) for years!

 

[wink]

That's where you and I disagree. COVID-19 reporting, like all reporting, has a high inject of opinion.

What sounds more dire:

'NY sees record high 1000 new cases of COVID-19!'

vs

'1 in 10,000 NYers infected with COVID-19.'

Both are true statements. One gives people the impression of a big problem (opinion), the other is a benign statement making it sound like no big deal (also an opinion).

The media is a master at this craft. Always has been.

Neither are opinion. They are facts. As I said, presented in a light that fits an agenda. Both are true. An opinion may be wrong or unprovable.

 

[Hair Warrior]

Yes. Linked below is a paper from 1790. (middle column first page - Congress gets paid too much and New England is too Arrogant).

The more things change...

Did it say they also cheat at sports?

 

[taxi1]

Rapid cheap tests like this will be a HUGE game changer. Allow us to essentially get back to normal once use is widespread.

Abbott's Fast, $5, 15-Minute, Easy-to-Use COVID-19 Antigen Test Receives FDA Emergency Use Authorization; Mobile App Displays Test Results to Help Our Return to Daily Life; Ramping Production to 50 Million Tests a Month

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for its BinaxNOW™ COVID-19 Ag Card rapid test for detection of...

abbott.mediaroom.com

 

[wlawr005]

I'll save my $5 and just keep on living normally.

 

[SlickAg]

“The existing literature has concluded that NPI policy and social distancing have been essential to reducing the spread of COVID-19 and the number of deaths due to this deadly pandemic. The stylized facts established in this paper challenge this conclusion. We argue that research going forward should account for these facts when assessing how important NPI policy is in shaping the progression of COVID-19.”

Article about the paper and then the link to the paper below it. Plus some interesting data out of Minnesota.

BUT...just to be on the safe side, we should probably lock it all down and close everything forever, right Team Apocalypse?

AMPLs and YAMs aren’t Monies; They are Gambling Technologies

"It's hard to see why AMPL or YAM could ever replace a dollar. While the price of these tokens is relatively benign, their quantity fluctuates wildly. So the total purchasing power of AMPLs (or YAMs) held in one’s wallet is quite volatile despite the purchasing power of a given AMPL (or YAM)...

www.aier.org

https://www.nber.org/papers/w27719.pdf

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1299415451378696192

 

[jackjack]

There were some concern about Victoria Australia and the recent spread of covid from quarantine. As you may know they implemented a lockdown a month ago.

As you would expect, this has greatly reduced the daily infection rate from 750 to under 100 per day.

 

[taxi1]

Article about the paper and then the link to the paper below it.

Interesting paper.

What it really says, is that the actions in the first 20-30 days were critical.

Simplifying, if you could suppress the growth rate during the first month so that on day 30 only 100 patients died, then you’d see a 100 or so die each day extending out.

If instead you screwed up the response and had 1000 dying on day 30, you’d have 1000/day extending out.

For areas that haven’t seen their first 25 deaths, when it comes, they need to respond aggressively.

 

[Spekkio]

Interesting paper.

What it really says, is that the actions in the first 20-30 days were critical.

Yep. They basically wrote a paper that theorizes that flattening the curve works.

Also, you don't usually turn to economists for your SMEs on pandemics.