So do a lot of things our government does. I am glad that my monthly donation to the EFF at the very least is being used to push back.
Readit NewsCriticalCathed commented on The EARN IT Act Violates the US Constitution eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03... · Posted by u/notRobot
CriticalCathed commented on The death toll for Covid-19 in Nembro, Italy corriere.it/politica/20_m... · Posted by u/myth_drannon
This is beyond a spurious claim.
The title is funny, since Ioannidis is actually the one proposing measures ("do nothing") based on no evidence and exaggeration. Basically every number in the paper is tainted by him cherry-picking the most optimistic number possible, and then trying to twist it further into something even better.
Like his argument for the R0 being near 1.3 is just that it's "probably" the case.
At some point we need to be able to call the data we have good enough for making decisions.
Um. He doesn't advocate do nothing. He specifically says the opposite. Read the paper. WTF?
I am worried there is a fine line between 'realism' and a backlash against care for the elderly and chronically ill.
When people realise that their earnings have been slashed, they have been burdened with years of increased taxes, the economy has plunged, and swathes of businesses have gone bust, for the sake of people who were going to die soon anyway...
Realism is good. But it is easy to 'evidence' biased anti-vulnerable feeling with 'realism'. I'm not convinced that if most people understood the realistic risk to themselves, they would do what's necessary to protect the people at much greater risk. The last week of the 'let's be realistic' zeitgeist on the news comment thread I visit.
As usual with such pessimism, I really hope I'm wrong.
>I am worried there is a fine line between 'realism' and a backlash against care for the elderly and chronically ill.
I guarantee you that if we don't target our lockdowns on the at-risk population (elderly being the most numerous in that group), whatever backlash there is will be worse when the general population realizes they aren't at any significant personal risk.
CriticalCathed commented on What we can learn from Camus’s “The Plague” lithub.com/what-we-can-le... · Posted by u/lermontov
Viruses do have treatments.
There aren't as many as for bacteria, for a number of reasons including that viruses don't really clearly fall into "alive" or "dead" in the same way. They hijack your cellular machinery to produce more of themselves but they're not much more than a strand of genetic code wrapped in a bundle. It's hard to say they're more alive than any computer virus.
However, we've studied the way in which viruses do this hijacking and are able to disrupt the process, for instance by blocking their mechanism of entering cells, by blocking their mechanism of exiting cells or by disrupting their ability to replicate their genetic information.
There are even some (albeit new) broad-spectrum antiviral medications such as Remdesivir which was explored in COVID-19. It does work, well even, though as the COVID-19 infection is primarily in the lungs it's difficult to establish a sufficient concentration to be hugely effective.
Hydroxycholorquine is interesting [1] both as an anti-inflammatory and immune modulator. The Azithromycin probably does nothing against nCoV-2 but may well help control secondary infection.
[1] https://watermark.silverchair.com/ciaa237.pdf?token=AQECAHi2...
>Hydroxycholorquine is interesting [1] both as an anti-inflammatory and immune modulator. The Azithromycin probably does nothing against nCoV-2 but may well help control secondary infection.
I had no clarity as to why azithromycin had improved the outcomes in that study to 100% of those treated with it, when HCQ didn't. That's very interesting.
Maybe you could clarify something else for me. Is there any information about whether these two drugs together could function as a prophylactic, or is this something patients have to be administered at the beginning of symptoms, or is this something that can be done late in the course of the disease?
CriticalCathed commented on What we can learn from Camus’s “The Plague” lithub.com/what-we-can-le... · Posted by u/lermontov
I think the pandemic is really pulling the mask off in that it neatly sorts out the kind of people who worry about vulnerable people, the elderly and not overwhelming the healthcare system so that more could live on one hand, and the kind of people who worry first and foremost about "the economy", and whatever imaginary deaths a recession could entail based on some abstract sleight-of-hand reasoning.
You're putting words into my mouth. And I really don't appreciate it. In fact, I think that our focus should be directly on the at risk population. I think we should do more to protect them and provide a whole host of interventions and services. I think we can do that without causing a depression; Remember, the effects of economic downturns affect every single aspect of peoples lives including their health. If we do this wrong even more people may die or have significant, long lasting, hardship because of an ill-considered and potentially unnecessary intervention.
Read through my profile to find what I've said to this end, I don't feel like giving you any more of my time after you've not given me the benefit of the doubt and basically called me inhumane.
CriticalCathed commented on What we can learn from Camus’s “The Plague” lithub.com/what-we-can-le... · Posted by u/lermontov
We don't usually call a disease that can easily evolve to pneumonie "a cold". And your focus on the supposedly low lethality is misplaced. Way more people need a stay in an hospital (sometimes short). This disease has the power to double (or even worse) the mortality rate of industrialized country during months or even years.
That some people are even asymptomatic is not even a particularly good news IMO. It will just spread more because of that...
>We don't usually call a disease that can easily evolve to pneumonie "a cold".
That's not true. Just not true. Colds and influenza regularly proceed to pnemonia or long lasting secondary lower respiratory infections, especially in the elderly but also in the young and healthy.
>Way more people need a stay in an hospital (sometimes short).
No that isn't clear at all. The current understanding is that because the infectivity is so high the proportion of cases that are serious come in many times faster than other respiratory viruses, and on TOP of other respiratory illnesses.
>This disease as the power to double (or even worse) the mortality rate of industrialized country during months or even years.
That's potentially true, but it isn't necessarily true. The excess mortality of this disease -- it is plausible and it can be sensibly argued, may not be that high. That is because it is killing, in general, those who are already ill. In Italy 88% of those who have died had one or more serious commodities such as heart disease, and that is on top of the fact that the median age of death is currently 81 (median case age 63.) An unknown but potentially high proportion of these deaths may have happened in the next two years anyway. So at the end of this the excess mortality rates may not be anywhere close to double amortized over two years, and consequently in two years we might see a drop in general mortality rates as a result (if this illness does end up infecting >50% of the population as some leaders have seen fit to say.
>That some people are even asymptomatic is not even a particularly good news IMO. It will just spread more because of that...
It is good news, definitely. Because it means that we don't need to worry about most people. We need to worry about those at high risk. We may be able to get through this by focusing on isolating, social distancing, and providing at home resource for those at significant risk. Such a strategy, if properly done, could even be used to allow the illness to travel through the otherwise not vulnerable population creating herd immunity which will allow those at risk to come out of quarantine earlier.
CriticalCathed commented on What we can learn from Camus’s “The Plague” lithub.com/what-we-can-le... · Posted by u/lermontov
China is in the process of lifting its lockdown right now. The total number of active cases is 5K out of a total of 81K. They are starting to let the healthy out of quarantine, re-opening tourist attractions and getting back to work.
So they claim. Anything out of China should be taken with a healthy pinch of skepticism.
Thank you for writing to me to share your concerns about law enforcement access to encrypted communications. I appreciate the time you took to write, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.
I understand you are opposed to the “Eliminating Abusive and Rampant Neglect of Interactive Technologies (EARN IT) Act of 2020” (S. 3398), which I introduced with Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Josh Hawley (R-MO) on March 5, 2020. You may be interested to know that the Senate Judiciary Committee—of which I am Ranking Member—held a hearing on the “EARN IT Act” on March 11, 2020. If you would like to watch the full hearing or read the testimonies given by the hearing witnesses, I encourage you to visit the following website: https://sen.gov/53RV.
The “EARN IT Act” would establish a National Commission on Online Sexual Exploitation Prevention to recommend best practices for companies to identify and report child sexual abuse material. Companies that implement these, or substantially similar, best practices would not be liable for any child sexual abuse materials that may still be found on their platforms. Companies that fail to meet these requirements, or fail to take other reasonable measures, would lose their liability protection.
Child abuse is one of the most heinous crimes, which is why I was deeply disturbed by recent reporting by The New York Times about the nearly 70 million online photos and videos of child sexual abuse that were reported by technology companies last year. It is a federal crime to possesses, distribute, or produce pictures of sexually explicit conduct with minors, and technology companies are required to report and remove these images on their platforms. Media reports, however, make it clear that current federal enforcement measures are insufficient and that we must do more to protect children from sexual exploitation.
Please know that I believe we must strike an appropriate balance between personal privacy and public safety. It is helpful for me to hear your perspective on this issue, and I will be mindful of your opposition to the “EARN IT Act” as the Senate continues to debate proposals to address child sexual exploitation.
Once again, thank you for writing. Should you have any other questions or comments, please call my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841 or visit my website at feinstein.senate.gov. You can also follow me online at YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and you can sign up for my email newsletter at feinstein.senate.gov/newsletter.
Best regards.
Sincerely yours,