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Deeply unsettling to imagine that the US statistics aren't trustworthy.

sneak 6y ago
I feel like politicizing and propagandizing the "current status" view was sadly inevitable once it became clear this was going to negatively affect capital flows in huge ways for months or years. There are too many in power invested too heavily in the status quo to allow end participants in the labor market to have enough data to make their own risk assessments. This is why states that have reopened despite it being unsafe to do so have set up unemployment snitch lines for people who don't want to risk their lives, so that the threat of eviction or starvation can be used against them. I worry we are going to see a lot of naked greed come forth in the next few months, and thousands of preventable deaths as a result.
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Anyone ever believed them? Throughout March and most April, US statistics were essentially worthless because testing was not being done - and that (especially early) happened on purpose, so it pretty much amounts to lying.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  Same for the UK - only reporting official in-hospital deaths that were tested, while limiting the number of tests. Much harder to fix the ONS excess death stats, and those are now running at around 55,000.
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    Yeah, excess deaths are probably the only reliable metric we have anywhere at this point. Over here in Poland, I've heard enough rumors in April that obviously-COVID-19-related deaths aren't counted as COVID-19 deaths because of a technicality, so I'm not giving much confidence to our official stats either. But it's harder to cook overall deaths.
mrfusion 6y ago
You got this from one lady quitting her job?
lumberingjack 6y ago
I've been in and out of the hospital for 6 months for hand related surgeries literally heard stories of doctors marking patients is dying of covid-19 when the only thing that was related was that deliveries didn't happen on time they didn't die of the virus just didn't get their deliveries of medical supplies on time but officially they died of the virus.

I feel like politicizing and propagandizing the "current status" view was sadly inevitable once it became clear this was going to negatively affect capital flows in huge ways for months or years. There are too many in power invested too heavily in the status quo to allow end participants in the labor market to have enough data to make their own risk assessments. This is why states that have reopened despite it being unsafe to do so have set up unemployment snitch lines for people who don't want to risk their lives, so that the threat of eviction or starvation can be used against them. I worry we are going to see a lot of naked greed come forth in the next few months, and thousands of preventable deaths as a result.

TeMPOraL 6y ago

Anyone ever believed them? Throughout March and most April, US statistics were essentially worthless because testing was not being done - and that (especially early) happened on purpose, so it pretty much amounts to lying.

TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
Same for the UK - only reporting official in-hospital deaths that were tested, while limiting the number of tests. Much harder to fix the ONS excess death stats, and those are now running at around 55,000.
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Yeah, excess deaths are probably the only reliable metric we have anywhere at this point. Over here in Poland, I've heard enough rumors in April that obviously-COVID-19-related deaths aren't counted as COVID-19 deaths because of a technicality, so I'm not giving much confidence to our official stats either. But it's harder to cook overall deaths.

mrfusion 6y ago

You got this from one lady quitting her job?

lumberingjack 6y ago

I've been in and out of the hospital for 6 months for hand related surgeries literally heard stories of doctors marking patients is dying of covid-19 when the only thing that was related was that deliveries didn't happen on time they didn't die of the virus just didn't get their deliveries of medical supplies on time but officially they died of the virus.