K-9

Was it about Joe Webb?

I’d also include hospitalizations as a reliable indicator.

People who mock and belittle the modelers don’t know much. The single most difficult aspect to model was the voluntary participation of the American people to heed the advice of governors that locked states down and demanded social distancing. That speaks well of us as people. The modelers needed to make prediction ranges based on varying degrees of participation none the less. But blaming modelers, China, or the WHO is so much easier than actually trying to understand things on a deeper level. My main concern continues to be our continued vigilance. Good news often leads to complacency. We simply can’t afford that.

FEMA seizing supplies from hospitals? Here’s an LA Times article about it. Transparency would be nice. https://apple.news/AjoGnUisdRiu28Hv8TUlBDw

That explains a lot of the aesthetics of the episode. Definitely had a Gilligan vibe all the way through.

It’s uncanny how these accounts from medical personnel around the world have sounded the same since the first reports leaked out of China.

Never go to AJ’s and now never will. Swannie House has lost a long time customer for good.

It’s my understanding that an aggregate of several models is considered by most states but that the Feds reference the IHME at the University of Washington model most often. There are dozens of modelers providing forecasts.

Distressing to read that Japanese PM Abe will propose declaring a month long state of emergency in seven districts, including Tokyo and Osaka after a RENEWED surge of the virus in the country’s biggest cities. This underscores my concerns that in our haste to open things up, we make things worse.

God bless the modelers. I can’t think of a more thankless job. They are tasked with forecasting futures based on current data sets and their primary job is to forecast ranges, including worst case scenarios in order to maximize preparedness. And for good reason. I’d think it was plainly obvious to their biggest critics that it’s always best to prepare for a worst case scenario and end up not needing that level of preparation vs. under preparing and being caught short. It’s like insurance is a foreign concept or something. I’d rather be informed by models based on data sets than a bunch of yes-man sycophants too afraid to tell me I have no clothes on.

Somebody stuck one of those on the statue of Jimmy Griffin at Sahlen Field, too.

Great epi! Reminiscent of some of the better two man episodes in BB with Walt and Jesse. Several parallels between the characters, too.

So does the General Welfare Clause.

Unless you count the daily exhibit of that laminated “presidential guidelines” poster, there has been no semblance of a centrally based plan since day one so it’s hard to imagine that coming now. It’s been on the individual states from the beginning. That said, I’ve been impressed with the work of several governors; governors of both political stripes who’ve been able to put aside petty partisan politics and focus on the work at hand. Governors like DeWine, Newsom, Inslee, Hogan, Wolf, Pritzker, Cuomo, and others made tough calls to shut down their states and enact strict social distancing measures to try and get ahead of this thing. I applaud that courage.