4 ms·

Johns Hopkins researchers question study linking Sturgis rally to Covid-19

• thu2111 6y ago
  The "study" (using that term loosely) was nonsense. The figure that got reported as healthcare cost was actually some kind of Department of Transport figure for the value of a life, adjusted for category of road accident, mapped in entirely arbitrary ways to COVID cases. This is how they ended up concluding an asymptomatic case "cost" $11,000 - an absurd idea that should have triggered a basic sanity check in anyone who read it.
  • chrisco255 6y ago
    What is the motivation behind these hit pieces anyways?
• brudgers 6y ago
  In a paper posted Friday, the Johns Hopkins researchers say the data collected by the San Diego center's economists (who represent three different universities) in fact support one main thrust of the study — that the Sturgis event led to a spike in COVID-19 cases in the county that hosted the rally as well as in surrounding areas. Basically, the new paper confirms the first likely effects of the earlier study. These are concentrated, earlier surfacing, and observable in a known location. Downstream epidemiological effects will occur later, be more diffuse, and require contact tracing, i.e. there's more work that can only occur in the future. We are only a month out from the Sturgis Rally. That's not enough time to collect significant data on it's impacts.