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Related: > The best thing you can do to fight COVID-19 is nothing. Stop writing that paper. Don't put it on the arxiv. > In recent days we've seen an influx i
by starpilot 7y ago
Related:
> The best thing you can do to fight COVID-19 is nothing. Stop writing that paper. Don't put it on the arxiv.
> In recent days we've seen an influx in papers on the arxiv modeling the spread of COVID-19. Many of these are relatively simple papers clearly written by physicists using simple SIR models, some basic curve fitting, and even Ising models to model the spread of COVID-19.
> I'm writing to ask you, from the bottom of my heart, to cut that shit out.
> This is not an unexplained X-ray line from the galactic center. This is not the 750 GeV diphoton excess. This is not something where the first paper to correctly guess the peak number of COVID-19 cases on the arxiv gets a Nobel prize. People's lives are at stake and you're not helping.
At best, you make physicists look bad. Epidemiology, as a field, already exists. Any prediction from a physicist tinkering with equations pulled from Wikipedia is not going to be a better prediction than that of professional public health experts whose models are far more sophisticated and already validated.
> At worst, people die.
https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/comments/fsfdn2/the_best_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_covid19_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/comments/fsfdn2/the_bes...
- drcode 7y agoI would love to be able to trust what the CDC and WHO are saying on these issues, they are in charge of the official narratives on coronavirus. Unfortunately, they have performed poorly since January, forcing us all to rely on outside sources to help shape our opinions on this issue. It is primarily their fault that models created by outsiders are getting so much attention at this time.
- Analemma_ 7y agoThat's a non sequitur though. The fact that the CDC and WHO have made mistakes does not imply that the models of J. Random Asshole are worth anything.
- throwaway_pdp09 7y agoI'd tend to agree with you that big orgs make mistakes, and of course they do, they're humans, not divine. Calling everyone else J. Random Asshole and thus inevitably crap is a step too far the other way I feel.