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dv8
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dv8
4 years ago

hey there!

Just Sven
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4 years ago

Hi, Dv8 -- happy Autumn!

Paddy O'Furnijur
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4 years ago

Happy flappy-puppy Tuesday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, dv8, and Sven!

I’ve been reading up on the coronavirus stats in my county and how we didn’t meet the benchmarks to move into a lower, less restrictive tier. I’ve been tracking the numbers and something didn’t seem right -- and then I found the answer. Apparently my county hasn’t been testing enough people -- the testing rate has dropped below the state average -- so the county’s testing stats are being penalized. I guess the geniuses in Sacramento haven’t figured out that a) if every county that is below average increases their testing rate, half of all counties will still be below the state average, and 2) that testing is still reserved for those who are symptomatic -- maybe few people are getting sick!

Just Sven
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4 years ago

Hi, Paddy -- maybe your county should offer a cash incentive to get tested?

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Just Sven

At the peak, in July, the county was conducting 53,000 tests per week. Now we’re down to 40,000 but apparently that’s not good enough. If they offered a cash incentive that exceeded the cost of the test, I’d get tested.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

Trying to make sense of the Chinese Flu numbers, I came across this site: https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

If you scroll down a bit, you come to a graph for excess mortality for all ages and selected countries. You can add the United States to the graph and see results.

I think this might be a better way to view the pandemic -- in total, how many deaths are we seeing due to Covid19 above the number of deaths we would normally expect to see. If the numbers are accurate, we dropped back to the baseline last month.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Just Sven

That’s a great site, Sven. By looking at excess mortality, we can also filter out incorrectly classified deaths. Based on that data, we should have been able to re-open everything a month ago. Or maybe I’m just a science denier.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

That was my thought as well, Paddy, but I wondered if I was just giving in to confirmation bias that this thing has been winding down for months now.

Paddy O'Furnijur
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Just Sven

I found this article at AoSHQ that also references the steady decline in COVID-19 cases:
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/despite-fading-epidemic-governments-vow-to-maintain-lockdowns/

Worse, too many people seem unwilling to accept the reality that the epidemic is ending. Instead, they get outraged by anyone who even suggests such a thing. They have fallen in love with their fear, and want to embrace it, forcing masks and restrictions on everyone forever, just so that they have a false sense of safety.

Unfortunately too many of our fascist governors and health bureaucrats have decided to take full advantage of that panicky fear and use it to gain more power over everyone. As it is said, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. For the past six months we have seen a perfect demonstration of this.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

The skeptic in me immediately agrees with the summation -- I wish I could come up with some other explanation.

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago

This person bears some resemblance to a certain decision scientist. https://heavy.com/news/2020/09/pascale-ferrier/

Just Sven
Editor
4 years ago
Reply to  Mac

She probably got it when she was in Texas, Mac. Then hid and smuggled it around the country while she was gathering together her ricin components.