A Sense of Doubt blog post #1906 - Trust in Science - the Weekly Hodge Podge 2005.07
Welcome to the weekly hodge podge of various things that I found interesting or worth sharing in the past week.
We start with a turnaround from the science hate and dismissal of verified, fact-based science that has become part of the public landscape since 2016 when that thing slithered into the White House.
Maybe this is just the thing! After three years of science denial, of dismissing science in favor of rants by Rush Limbaugh, after breaking national ties with the Paris accord on climate change -- The Paris Agreement (L'accord de Paris), an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- after openly mocking climate change and science via Twitter, NOW the "president" and his cronies must trust in science as it is the only way to survive and thrive in this pandemic.
Remember, despite all the hooha and ballyhoo from the Oval Office, Trump's administration cut funds for Obama era "disease security programs" according to FORTUNE, though overall funding cuts, but that's only part of the story. The whole story revealed by Politifact, rated with high factual reporting and the least bias by Media Bias Fact Check shared in this article that spending cuts to preparedness for pandemics goes back fifteen years and spans three presidencies. Nevertheless, the Trump administration did not reverse the trend or make pandemic responses a priority, even when it was clear a pandemic was coming.
And now, it's time to trust in science.
Except it seems the "president" trusts more in economic advice and forecasters who care about getting the economy back on track before a depression far greater than the "Great Depression" ravages the country and bank accounts of potential voters' rather the scientists and the CDC and smart people trying to keep Americans safe from getting a deadly virus that could kill them.
So, isn't this a bright ray of sunshine to start the hodge podge for the week? Actually as I type, which is sadly Friday not Thursday, there are bright rays of sunshine outside my window as the sun rises.
So, that's the first item. Trust in science grows in the United Kingdom ... not necessarily but the United States. We can only hope that Americans, especially the federal government, will start to listen more closely to scientists.
So lots of great stuff in this week's episode. Lots of "love gov" Andrew Cuomo and his GREAT press conference from Cinco de Mayo: "How much is a Human Life Worth?"
Why isn't ANDREW CUOMO our president???
Anyway, as usual, here's the weekly links to the data about cases (lower than reality) and deaths (lower than reality, also) due to COVID-19.
Data can be found here, as always:
This is also a good data site:
United States
Coronavirus Cases:
1,295,058
Deaths:
77,058
Recovered:
217,292
I am not sure of the exact rate, but an estimate is clearly at least 1000 people a day are dying of the virus in the United States.
And states are re-opening, some recklessly. I fear that this situation is about to get much, much worse.
As Chris Cuomo of CNN always says, "let's get after it."
He also says "together, as ever, as one," which I love.
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| https://www.11alive.com/article/news/people-trust-science-so-why-dont-they-believe-it/445206167 |
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/05/06/0045216/trust-in-scientists-grows-as-fake-coronavirus-news-rises-uk-poll-finds
Trust In Scientists Grows As Fake Coronavirus News Rises, UK Poll Finds (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian:Public trust in the work of scientists and health experts has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, amid a surge in misinformation about the virus, a poll has found. The opinion poll by the Open Knowledge Foundation, an open data campaign group, found 64% of voters were now more likely to listen to expert advice from scientists and researchers, with only 5% saying they were less likely to do so. The Survation poll also found 51% of the population had seen fake news about the coronavirus, including discredited claims that Covid-19 was linked to 5G mobile phone masts, on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
A majority of voters, 59%, also trusted the government to make the right decisions about using confidential data to decide when to lift the lockdown and change social distancing rules. However, 35% of voters said they did not trust the government, with only 6% unsure. The public also wanted much greater access to scientific data, and disliked restrictions on their right to get information. Survation found that 67% of voters believe that all research findings in the search for a Covid-19 vaccine should be made freely available. In addition, 97% of the 1,006 voters polled said government and health bodies should release non-confidential data used by ministers and the NHS to inform their policies, and 95% said that data should always be openly available, on principle.
A majority of voters, 59%, also trusted the government to make the right decisions about using confidential data to decide when to lift the lockdown and change social distancing rules. However, 35% of voters said they did not trust the government, with only 6% unsure. The public also wanted much greater access to scientific data, and disliked restrictions on their right to get information. Survation found that 67% of voters believe that all research findings in the search for a Covid-19 vaccine should be made freely available. In addition, 97% of the 1,006 voters polled said government and health bodies should release non-confidential data used by ministers and the NHS to inform their policies, and 95% said that data should always be openly available, on principle.
INSERTED JUST FOR FUN AMID THE LESS FUN...
Every day I get this reminder that Governor Cuomo is very knowledgeable about the virus and the pandemic and speaks plainly, clearly, and straight, and the "president" of United States does not seem to know much of anything, speaks in vague terms, and spreads misinformation. https://t.co/F82Lbu0wl5— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) May 3, 2020
Look at the data. Follow the science. Listen to the experts.— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) May 5, 2020
Be smart.
What more can he hide? How many more lives lost? How much is a human life worth?— Robert Martinez (@Robt_Martinez) May 5, 2020
Where is "Deep throat"? https://t.co/pufUOdpaQq
.@NYGovCuomo on reopening debate: "How much is a human life worth? There's a cost to staying closed. There's also a cost to reopening quickly." pic.twitter.com/5IwKwCHIOW— WGRZ (@WGRZ) May 5, 2020
There is a cost to staying closed— your thoughtful wonk 🌹👩🏻💻🏡 (@thoughtfulwonk) May 5, 2020
There is a cost to opening up too quickly
Let’s not camouflage the terms of the discussion that no one is admitting openly or freely
How much is a human life worth?
.@NYGovCuomo says human life is priceless.
This briefing is GREAT!! Worth watching (clips from some of the Twitter above):
I love this ad... Trump is furious about it...
📺 Mourning In America pic.twitter.com/djkH0ySCqo— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) May 4, 2020
President Trump lashes out at ad criticizing his response to coronavirus. He deserves the criticism, has no plan for America, and should be prosecuted for manslaughter for the lives he is wasting. Why is he selling Grandma out? Ah yes, it's the money. https://t.co/JHzlvdiGm0— Barbara Leach (@barbaraleach19) May 5, 2020
A mourning reminder of why and how it happened. #Presidementia pic.twitter.com/Avf14Zozmq— John M. Talmadge, MD (@JohnMTalmadgeMD) May 5, 2020
Donna Reed was an anti-Vietnam War, anti-nuke and pro-native rights activist and organizer. https://t.co/nfWspcdD9k pic.twitter.com/qYMFBt2wUk— Michael Tisserand (@m_tisserand) May 5, 2020
I have reached maximum saturation. Can we eliminate from the lexicon "it is what it is" and "day one" before I lose my mind!! #overuse #meaninglesssyntax #itsnotwhatitis— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) May 5, 2020
They won’t march for reproductive rights. They won’t march for POC or LGBTQ rights. They won’t march for health insurance. They won’t march for income equality. They won’t march for election reform.— Evan Dickson (@EvanDickson) May 3, 2020
But they will march to go to the beach. pic.twitter.com/0Yx5CTCths
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/04/30/2336201/is-space-time-quantized-or-analog
Is Space-Time Quantized Or Analog? (space.com)
"What are the implications if 'space-time' (as conceived of in the Einstein Theory of General Relativity) is quantized like all other aspects of matter and energy?" asks Slashdot reader sixoh1. Space.com reports of a new study that tried to find out:In order for the math of general relativity to work, this fabric of space-time has to be absolutely smooth at the tiniest of scales. No matter how far you zoom in, space-time will always be as wrinkle-free as a recently ironed shirt. No holes, no tears, no tangles. Just pure, clean smoothness. Without this smoothness, the mathematics of gravity simply break down. But general relativity isn't the only thing telling us about space-time. We also have quantum mechanics (and its successor, quantum field theory). In the quantum world, everything microscopic is ruled by random chance and probabilities. Particles can appear and disappear at a moment's notice (and usually even less time than that). Fields can wiggle and vibrate with a will all their own. And nothing can ever be known for certain. [...]
That's exactly what a team of astronomers did, submitting their results for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and also posting their work to the online preprint site arXiv. And in a perfect coincidence, they searched for the frothiness of space-time using ... espresso. No, not the drink. ESPRESSO, the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, an instrument based at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. As its name suggests, ESPRESSO was not designed to search for space-time frothiness, but it turned out to be the best tool for the job. And the astronomers pointed it at a perfect source: a run-of-the-mill gas cloud sitting over 18 billion light-years away. What makes this particular gas cloud especially useful is two facts. One, there is a bright source sitting just behind it, illuminating it. And two, there's iron in the cloud, which absorbs the background light at a very specific wavelength.
So from our vantage point on Earth, if space-time is perfectly smooth, that gap in the background light caused by the gas cloud should be just as narrow as if the cloud was sitting right next to us. But if space-time is frothy, then the light traveling over the billions of light-years will spread out, changing the width of the gap. The astronomers didn't find any hint of frothiness, which doesn't mean that it doesn't exist -- it just means that if space-time is frothy, we need more than 18 billion light-years to see it with our current technology. But the results were able to rule out some models of quantum gravity, sending them into the proverbial dustbin of physics history.
That's exactly what a team of astronomers did, submitting their results for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and also posting their work to the online preprint site arXiv. And in a perfect coincidence, they searched for the frothiness of space-time using ... espresso. No, not the drink. ESPRESSO, the Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations, an instrument based at the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. As its name suggests, ESPRESSO was not designed to search for space-time frothiness, but it turned out to be the best tool for the job. And the astronomers pointed it at a perfect source: a run-of-the-mill gas cloud sitting over 18 billion light-years away. What makes this particular gas cloud especially useful is two facts. One, there is a bright source sitting just behind it, illuminating it. And two, there's iron in the cloud, which absorbs the background light at a very specific wavelength.
So from our vantage point on Earth, if space-time is perfectly smooth, that gap in the background light caused by the gas cloud should be just as narrow as if the cloud was sitting right next to us. But if space-time is frothy, then the light traveling over the billions of light-years will spread out, changing the width of the gap. The astronomers didn't find any hint of frothiness, which doesn't mean that it doesn't exist -- it just means that if space-time is frothy, we need more than 18 billion light-years to see it with our current technology. But the results were able to rule out some models of quantum gravity, sending them into the proverbial dustbin of physics history.
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/01/1259217/us-probes-university-of-texas-links-to-chinese-lab-scrutinized-over-coronavirus
US Probes University of Texas Links To Chinese Lab Scrutinized Over Coronavirus (wsj.com)
The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory that U.S. officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic. From a report:The request for records of gifts or contracts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researcher Shi Zhengli, known for her work on bats, is part of a broader department investigation into possible faulty financial disclosures of foreign money by the Texas group of universities. The Education Department's letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, also asks the UT System to share documents regarding potential ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and some two dozen Chinese universities and companies, including Huawei Technologies Co. and a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. The department is also seeking documents related to any university system contracts or gifts from Eric Yuan, a U.S. citizen who is the chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/05/01/2126221/dogs-are-now-being-trained-to-sniff-out-coronavirus
Dogs Are Now Being Trained To Sniff Out Coronavirus
New Slashdot submitter Joe2020 shares a report from the BBC:Firefighters in Corsica, France, are aiming to teach canines how to sniff out coronavirus, as they can other conditions. It's hoped that detection dogs could be used to identify people with the virus at public places like airports. Their trial is one of several experiments being undertaken in countries including the UK and the USA."Each individual dog can screen up to 250 people per hour," James Logan, head of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told The Washington Post. "We are simultaneously working on a model to scale it up so it can be deployed in other countries at ports of entry, including airports." The dogs are trained using urine and saliva samples collected from patients who tested positive and negative for the disease.
"We don't know that this will be the odor of the virus, per se, or the response to the virus, or a combination," Cynthia Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, told the publication. "The dogs don't care what the odor is ... What they learn is that there's something different about this sample than there is about that sample."
"We don't know that this will be the odor of the virus, per se, or the response to the virus, or a combination," Cynthia Otto, director of the Working Dog Center at Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine, told the publication. "The dogs don't care what the odor is ... What they learn is that there's something different about this sample than there is about that sample."
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/05/05/0527237/experts-are-puzzled-over-why-the-coronavirus-lingers-in-some-asymptomatic-patients-for-as-long-as-40-days
Experts Are Puzzled Over Why the Coronavirus Lingers in Some Asymptomatic Patients For as Long as 40 Days (latimes.com)
Shashank Bengali, reporting for Los Angeles Times:By his second day in the hospital with COVID-19, Charles Pignal's mild cough and 102-degree fever had disappeared. Bored and "bouncing off the walls" of his room in the isolation ward at Singapore's National Center for Infectious Diseases, he felt like he could go out and play a set of tennis. The 42-year-old footwear executive told his mother on the phone, "I'll be out of here in a couple of days." But Pignal would test positive for the coronavirus for five more weeks, despite developing no further symptoms. He wasn't released until the 40th day after he first fell ill, when he finally tested negative two days in a row. Cases like his are coming under increasing scrutiny as medical researchers worldwide puzzle over why the coronavirus -- which typically lasts about two to three weeks in the body -- appears to endure longer in some patients, even relatively young, healthy ones.
With studies showing that asymptomatic patients can transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus, understanding how the virus leaves the body is among the most urgent mysteries facing researchers as governments in the United States and across the world begin to reopen their economies. Although studies show that the average recovery time from COVID-19 is two weeks, and nearly all patients are virus-free within a month, "less than 1% to 2%, for reasons that we do not know, continue to shed virus after that," said Hsu Li Yang, a physician specializing in infectious diseases at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore. In recent weeks, China and South Korea have reported that some patients who had recovered from COVID-19 tested positive again in follow-up visits. In extreme cases, patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began late last year, reportedly tested positive 70 days after recovery. Doctors in both countries said they didn't believe the patients had been reinfected, a worrisome possibility because of its implications for building widespread immunity to a disease for which there is no vaccine. They also had no evidence that the patients had infected others.
With studies showing that asymptomatic patients can transmit the SARS-CoV-2 virus, understanding how the virus leaves the body is among the most urgent mysteries facing researchers as governments in the United States and across the world begin to reopen their economies. Although studies show that the average recovery time from COVID-19 is two weeks, and nearly all patients are virus-free within a month, "less than 1% to 2%, for reasons that we do not know, continue to shed virus after that," said Hsu Li Yang, a physician specializing in infectious diseases at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore. In recent weeks, China and South Korea have reported that some patients who had recovered from COVID-19 tested positive again in follow-up visits. In extreme cases, patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak began late last year, reportedly tested positive 70 days after recovery. Doctors in both countries said they didn't believe the patients had been reinfected, a worrisome possibility because of its implications for building widespread immunity to a disease for which there is no vaccine. They also had no evidence that the patients had infected others.
For every great act of kindness, selflessness, and compassion in this pandemic crisis, there's at least one example of people being the selfish, entitled, thoughtless dipshits we always knew that they were. #Staythefuckhomeassholes https://t.co/dihIAjNV7q— gmrstudios (@gmrstudios) May 2, 2020
To paraphrase Mel Brooks, "tyranny" is when I have to stay inside watching Netflix. A "nothing burger" is when you die in a concentration camp. https://t.co/gVv3RHkJtG— Rebecca Watson (@rebeccawatson) April 30, 2020
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”— mer (@Theremina) June 23, 2019
J.R.R. Tolkien#gandalfpup pic.twitter.com/qOMWzSj4vb
90% of Americans not complete dipshitshttps://t.co/lxQMi74bsa— John Scalzi (@scalzi) April 21, 2020
Other options? https://t.co/Itdvv02smy— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) April 18, 2020
https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/04/0741208/unimpressed-by-online-classes-college-students-demand-refunds
Unimpressed by Online Classes, College Students Demand Refunds (apnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes the Associated Press:They wanted the campus experience, but their colleges sent them home to learn online during the coronavirus pandemic. Now, students at more than 25 U.S. universities are filing lawsuits against their schools demanding partial refunds on tuition and campus fees, saying they're not getting the caliber of education they were promised.
The suits reflect students' growing frustration with online classes that schools scrambled to create as the coronavirus forced campuses across the nation to close last month. The suits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience. Colleges, though, reject the idea that refunds are in order. Students are learning from the same professors who teach on campus, officials have said, and they're still earning credits toward their degrees. Schools insist that, after being forced to close by their states, they're still offering students a quality education...
Some of the suits draw attention to schools' large financial reserves, saying colleges are unfairly withholding refunds even while they rest on endowments that often surpass $1 billion.
"You cannot keep money for services and access if you aren't actually providing it," argues a lawyer for several students in South Carolina.
One student there complains that some classes are now taught almost entirely with recorded videos, while a legal action filed against the University of California at Berkeley "says some professors are simply uploading assignments, with no video instruction at all."
The suits reflect students' growing frustration with online classes that schools scrambled to create as the coronavirus forced campuses across the nation to close last month. The suits say students should pay lower rates for the portion of the term that was offered online, arguing that the quality of instruction is far below the classroom experience. Colleges, though, reject the idea that refunds are in order. Students are learning from the same professors who teach on campus, officials have said, and they're still earning credits toward their degrees. Schools insist that, after being forced to close by their states, they're still offering students a quality education...
Some of the suits draw attention to schools' large financial reserves, saying colleges are unfairly withholding refunds even while they rest on endowments that often surpass $1 billion.
"You cannot keep money for services and access if you aren't actually providing it," argues a lawyer for several students in South Carolina.
One student there complains that some classes are now taught almost entirely with recorded videos, while a legal action filed against the University of California at Berkeley "says some professors are simply uploading assignments, with no video instruction at all."
View from north of the border... it’s not perfect here but we doing good, Canada 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/lEOOsE0que— Dr Academic Batgirl (@AcademicBatgirl) April 23, 2020
AND NOW SOME VIDEOS AND SOME OTHER THINGS TOO...
No one is gonna shit on students under my watch. My comments on how critical thinking is the hallmark of postsecondary education and how social media can support responsible behaviour: https://t.co/au3qkClti2— Dr Academic Batgirl (@AcademicBatgirl) April 2, 2020
I am digging @NYGovCuomo’s affinity for facts. May I suggest one of my memes to incorporate into tomorrow’s press conference: pic.twitter.com/5o3lr7Iuxo— Dr Academic Batgirl (@AcademicBatgirl) April 1, 2020
DEMO(N)S, Foie Gras https://t.co/nscQ3RpZ54— Wᴀʀʀᴇɴ Eʟʟɪs (@warrenellis) May 7, 2020
BIG MISTAKE_ The detailed document was supposed to be published last Friday, but agency scientists were told the guidance “would never see the light of day,” according to a CDC official. https://t.co/9ohAuDpkGC via @HuffPostPol— Jimmy Palmiotti (@jpalmiotti) May 7, 2020
COMIC BOOK NEWS!!!
THE FUTURE OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR in film!!
And always some maths... this is long but really helps to understand logarithms, which I struggled with even though the concept is not hard...
MORE MUSIC.... I AM SO HAPPY KAWEHI IS BACK TO DOING THINGS....
Olden goldie to close...
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2005.07 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1769 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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