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Dunning Kruger Effect: Why Some People Believe They Know More Than The Experts
People come to believe things that serve them in one way or another, and often disregard contradictory information because it doesn't reinforce the ideas that make them less anxious and feel more empowered. Below is a good explanation of an effect of which one only becomes aware as their education reaches college levels of understanding and above. I'd noticed it in myself: the way my perceptions of the world shifted with more and more perspective and knowledge, but I'd never put it into words except to say, "I know that I do not know what I do not know. Being mindful of this, I know a little better." Some people regard a shatter illusion a "bad thing". Not me. Bring them on. If I've an illusion, let it be shattered. This is not the attitude of people who still support trump. THEIR behavior is more typical of schizoid people with tight delusional systems that make them hateful towards anyone who, no matter how kindly, tries to show them facts that do not mesh well with their delusions.
Regarding the virus, obviously trump has his ideas about how to respond to the virus, and he is motivated by a variety of factors, many of which are inappropriate and displacing the energy he puts into what should be his number 1 concern: Reducing fatalities by supporting medical personnel and the folks who are keeping food, utility and supplies available to weather this biological storm. But his followers are ignoring the medical experts, infectious disease experts, etc and what follows is an explanation for why they are prone to doing this. Basically, it's a lack of perspective in which to judge the competence of their own perceptions/ideas created by a lack of knowledge/data. Just like we can't know how deadly the 2019 Corona virus is until we test a huge random sample for antibodies, these people lack the data set that would give them insight. Couple that with an unwillingness to entertain data contrary to their own theories/delusions and you get a MAGA and/or KAGA. Without further delay, the Dunning Kruger Effect:
Copied from Quora where David Blackstone wrote:
"There’s a psychological phenomenon called the Dunning Kruger effect, which explains why the ignorant believe themselves to be smarter than they actually are.
Knowledgeable people, or experts who know more about a subject than anyone else, are more likely to be aware of what they don’t know. They know the extent of the knowledge that can be learned on a subject and consequently are more likely to know how much they know relative to how much there IS to know.
Ignorant people are the opposite. They don’t know how much there is to know because they don’t know much to begin with. So they assume that their knowledge is on par with or better than an experts, purely because they don’t understand how much there truly is to learn.
Because of this phenomenon, knowledgeable people are more likely to underestimate their knowledge while less knowledgeable people are more likely to overestimate their knowledge.
In sum, smart people know how much they don’t know. Ignorant people are unaware of how much they don’t know, so they think they know more than they do."
____________________________________________________________________
As to where this will lead us, I'm put in mind of what my Dad would shrug and say in such a situation: "Them that cannot hear have to feel".
Regarding the virus, obviously trump has his ideas about how to respond to the virus, and he is motivated by a variety of factors, many of which are inappropriate and displacing the energy he puts into what should be his number 1 concern: Reducing fatalities by supporting medical personnel and the folks who are keeping food, utility and supplies available to weather this biological storm. But his followers are ignoring the medical experts, infectious disease experts, etc and what follows is an explanation for why they are prone to doing this. Basically, it's a lack of perspective in which to judge the competence of their own perceptions/ideas created by a lack of knowledge/data. Just like we can't know how deadly the 2019 Corona virus is until we test a huge random sample for antibodies, these people lack the data set that would give them insight. Couple that with an unwillingness to entertain data contrary to their own theories/delusions and you get a MAGA and/or KAGA. Without further delay, the Dunning Kruger Effect:
Copied from Quora where David Blackstone wrote:
"There’s a psychological phenomenon called the Dunning Kruger effect, which explains why the ignorant believe themselves to be smarter than they actually are.
Knowledgeable people, or experts who know more about a subject than anyone else, are more likely to be aware of what they don’t know. They know the extent of the knowledge that can be learned on a subject and consequently are more likely to know how much they know relative to how much there IS to know.
Ignorant people are the opposite. They don’t know how much there is to know because they don’t know much to begin with. So they assume that their knowledge is on par with or better than an experts, purely because they don’t understand how much there truly is to learn.
Because of this phenomenon, knowledgeable people are more likely to underestimate their knowledge while less knowledgeable people are more likely to overestimate their knowledge.
In sum, smart people know how much they don’t know. Ignorant people are unaware of how much they don’t know, so they think they know more than they do."
____________________________________________________________________
As to where this will lead us, I'm put in mind of what my Dad would shrug and say in such a situation: "Them that cannot hear have to feel".
Hope of recovery in Germany
from the NY Times
With Broad, Random Tests for Antibodies, Germany Seeks Path Out of Lockdown
It was the first large Western democracy to contain the spread of the coronavirus and is now the first to methodically go about reopening its economy. Others are watching.
Taking a blood sample as part of random sampling for antibodies to the coronavirus.Credit...
By Katrin Bennhold
BERLIN — Felix Germann was not expecting anyone when his doorbell rang last week. Outside was a doctor who looked like she had just stepped out of an operating theater, green scrubs, face mask and all — and a policeman.
“I didn’t do it!” Mr. Germann said, throwing up his hands, and everybody laughed.
The unusual visitors had come with an unusual proposal: Would he allow them to test his blood for Covid-19 antibodies? Every month? For a year? Starting next week?
He would be helping to further the science that would ultimately allow for a controlled lifting of social and economic restrictions and save lives.
“Of course I said yes,” said Mr. Germann, a 41-year-old project manager at a media company. “I want to help. This is a collective crisis. The government is doing what it can. Everyone needs to do their bit.”
With that, Mr. Germann and his girlfriend joined 3,000 households chosen at random in Munich for an ambitious study whose central aim is to understand how many people — even those with no symptoms — have already had the virus, a key variable to make decisions about public life in a pandemic.
The study is part of an aggressive approach to combat the virus in a comprehensive way that has made Germany a leader among Western nations figuring out how to control the contagion while returning to something resembling normal life.
Other nations, including the United States, are still struggling to test for infections. But Germany is doing that and more. It is aiming to sample the entire population for antibodies in coming months, hoping to gain valuable insight into how deeply the virus has penetrated the society at large, how deadly it really is, and whether immunity might be developing.
The government hopes to use the findings to unravel a riddle that will allow Germany to move securely into the next phase of the pandemic: Which of the far-reaching social and economic restrictions that have slowed the virus are most effective and which can be safely lifted? The same questions are being asked around the world. Other countries like Iceland and South Korea have tested broadly for infections, or combined testing with digital tracking to undercut the spread of the virus.
In hard-hit Italy, antibody tests — and the potential of “immunity licenses” — have lingered over a national debate over how and when to reopen the country. Regional presidents have turned to serological tests as a way to better chart infections but also to get a sense of which workers might have the desired antibodies to possibly provide protection and return to work.
But even the best laid plans can go awry; Singapore attempted to reopen only to have the virus re-emerge.
In the United States, President Trump is in a hurry to restart the economy in an election year, but experts warn that much wider testing is needed to open societies safely.
Both Britain and the United States, where some of the first tests were flawed, virtually forfeited the notion of widespread testing early in their outbreaks and have since had to ration tests in places as they scramble to catch up. In Italy, one of the worst hit countries in the world, the central government and regional leaders sparred over how widely to test.
Germany, which produces most of its own high-quality test kits, is already testing on a greater scale than most — 120,000 a day and growing in a nation of 83 million.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, a trained scientist, said this week that the aim was nothing less than tracing “every infection chain.”
continued on next page
With Broad, Random Tests for Antibodies, Germany Seeks Path Out of Lockdown
It was the first large Western democracy to contain the spread of the coronavirus and is now the first to methodically go about reopening its economy. Others are watching.
Taking a blood sample as part of random sampling for antibodies to the coronavirus.Credit...
By Katrin Bennhold
BERLIN — Felix Germann was not expecting anyone when his doorbell rang last week. Outside was a doctor who looked like she had just stepped out of an operating theater, green scrubs, face mask and all — and a policeman.
“I didn’t do it!” Mr. Germann said, throwing up his hands, and everybody laughed.
The unusual visitors had come with an unusual proposal: Would he allow them to test his blood for Covid-19 antibodies? Every month? For a year? Starting next week?
He would be helping to further the science that would ultimately allow for a controlled lifting of social and economic restrictions and save lives.
“Of course I said yes,” said Mr. Germann, a 41-year-old project manager at a media company. “I want to help. This is a collective crisis. The government is doing what it can. Everyone needs to do their bit.”
With that, Mr. Germann and his girlfriend joined 3,000 households chosen at random in Munich for an ambitious study whose central aim is to understand how many people — even those with no symptoms — have already had the virus, a key variable to make decisions about public life in a pandemic.
The study is part of an aggressive approach to combat the virus in a comprehensive way that has made Germany a leader among Western nations figuring out how to control the contagion while returning to something resembling normal life.
Other nations, including the United States, are still struggling to test for infections. But Germany is doing that and more. It is aiming to sample the entire population for antibodies in coming months, hoping to gain valuable insight into how deeply the virus has penetrated the society at large, how deadly it really is, and whether immunity might be developing.
The government hopes to use the findings to unravel a riddle that will allow Germany to move securely into the next phase of the pandemic: Which of the far-reaching social and economic restrictions that have slowed the virus are most effective and which can be safely lifted? The same questions are being asked around the world. Other countries like Iceland and South Korea have tested broadly for infections, or combined testing with digital tracking to undercut the spread of the virus.
In hard-hit Italy, antibody tests — and the potential of “immunity licenses” — have lingered over a national debate over how and when to reopen the country. Regional presidents have turned to serological tests as a way to better chart infections but also to get a sense of which workers might have the desired antibodies to possibly provide protection and return to work.
But even the best laid plans can go awry; Singapore attempted to reopen only to have the virus re-emerge.
In the United States, President Trump is in a hurry to restart the economy in an election year, but experts warn that much wider testing is needed to open societies safely.
Both Britain and the United States, where some of the first tests were flawed, virtually forfeited the notion of widespread testing early in their outbreaks and have since had to ration tests in places as they scramble to catch up. In Italy, one of the worst hit countries in the world, the central government and regional leaders sparred over how widely to test.
Germany, which produces most of its own high-quality test kits, is already testing on a greater scale than most — 120,000 a day and growing in a nation of 83 million.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, a trained scientist, said this week that the aim was nothing less than tracing “every infection chain.”
continued on next page
Thomas Friedman essay
Trump Is Asking Us to Play Russian Roulette With Our Lives - Are we really going to bet that we can go back to life as normal without proper coronavirus tracking in place?
By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist April 18, 2020
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA.”
With these three short tweets last week, President Trump attempted to kick off the post-lockdown phase of America’s coronavirus crisis. It should be called: “American Russian roulette: The Covid-19 version.’’
What Trump was saying with those tweets was: Everybody just go back to work. From now on, each of us individually, and our society collectively, is going to play Russian roulette. We’re going to bet that we can spin through our daily lives — work, shopping, school, travel — without the coronavirus landing on us. And if it does, we’ll also bet that it won’t kill us.
More specifically: As a society, we will be betting that as large numbers of people stop sheltering in place, the number of people who will still get infected with Covid-19 and require hospitalization will be less than the number of hospital beds, intensive care units, respirators, doctors, nurses and protective gear needed to take care of them.
Because it is clear that millions of Americans are going to stop sheltering in place — their own President is now urging them to liberate themselves — before we have a proper testing, tracking and tracing system set up. Until we have a vaccine, that kind of system is the only path to dramatically lowering the risk of infection while partially opening society — while also protecting the elderly and infirm — as Germany has demonstrated.
And as individuals, every person will be playing Russian roulette every minute of every day: Do I get on this crowded bus to go to work or not? What if I get on the subway and the person next to me is not wearing gloves and a mask? What if they sneeze? Do I get in the elevator at the office if there is another person on it? Do I go into the office lunchroom or not? Do I stop for a drink at this bar, where the stools are six feet apart, or that crowded one my friends chose? Do I use this toilet or that drinking fountain? Do I send my kid back to school or not? Do I stay in a hotel? Ride an airplane? Let the plumber in? Do I go to the doctor to check that strange lump or not?
What will be so cruel about this American version of Russian roulette is how unfair it will be. Some people will have no choice but to take the subway or the bus to work. Some people will have to send their kids back to school because they can’t afford to stay home from work. Some bosses will demand that their employees show up to reopen their workplace, but some of those employees may be afraid to come back. Do you fire them? Do they bring a lawsuit against you if you do, or do they go on Twitter and post a picture of how closely together you forced them to work — six inches apart, not six feet?
This is the state of play when you have a president who one minute is responsibly issuing sober guidelines for when and how people should go back to work, and the next minute is telling states that they are responsible for getting the testing, tracking and tracing units that we need in place and then, in the third minute, is inciting people on Twitter to “liberate” their workplaces, cities and beaches — even though none of the conditions are in place to do so safely.
“Liberate”? Think about the use of that word. We were not in jail! We were not doing something wrong! We were doing what our president, governor, mayor, and national epidemic experts told us to do: behave responsibly and shelter in place to break the transmission of this virus.
CONTINUED ... next page
By Thomas L. Friedman
Opinion Columnist April 18, 2020
“LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE VIRGINIA.”
With these three short tweets last week, President Trump attempted to kick off the post-lockdown phase of America’s coronavirus crisis. It should be called: “American Russian roulette: The Covid-19 version.’’
What Trump was saying with those tweets was: Everybody just go back to work. From now on, each of us individually, and our society collectively, is going to play Russian roulette. We’re going to bet that we can spin through our daily lives — work, shopping, school, travel — without the coronavirus landing on us. And if it does, we’ll also bet that it won’t kill us.
More specifically: As a society, we will be betting that as large numbers of people stop sheltering in place, the number of people who will still get infected with Covid-19 and require hospitalization will be less than the number of hospital beds, intensive care units, respirators, doctors, nurses and protective gear needed to take care of them.
Because it is clear that millions of Americans are going to stop sheltering in place — their own President is now urging them to liberate themselves — before we have a proper testing, tracking and tracing system set up. Until we have a vaccine, that kind of system is the only path to dramatically lowering the risk of infection while partially opening society — while also protecting the elderly and infirm — as Germany has demonstrated.
And as individuals, every person will be playing Russian roulette every minute of every day: Do I get on this crowded bus to go to work or not? What if I get on the subway and the person next to me is not wearing gloves and a mask? What if they sneeze? Do I get in the elevator at the office if there is another person on it? Do I go into the office lunchroom or not? Do I stop for a drink at this bar, where the stools are six feet apart, or that crowded one my friends chose? Do I use this toilet or that drinking fountain? Do I send my kid back to school or not? Do I stay in a hotel? Ride an airplane? Let the plumber in? Do I go to the doctor to check that strange lump or not?
What will be so cruel about this American version of Russian roulette is how unfair it will be. Some people will have no choice but to take the subway or the bus to work. Some people will have to send their kids back to school because they can’t afford to stay home from work. Some bosses will demand that their employees show up to reopen their workplace, but some of those employees may be afraid to come back. Do you fire them? Do they bring a lawsuit against you if you do, or do they go on Twitter and post a picture of how closely together you forced them to work — six inches apart, not six feet?
This is the state of play when you have a president who one minute is responsibly issuing sober guidelines for when and how people should go back to work, and the next minute is telling states that they are responsible for getting the testing, tracking and tracing units that we need in place and then, in the third minute, is inciting people on Twitter to “liberate” their workplaces, cities and beaches — even though none of the conditions are in place to do so safely.
“Liberate”? Think about the use of that word. We were not in jail! We were not doing something wrong! We were doing what our president, governor, mayor, and national epidemic experts told us to do: behave responsibly and shelter in place to break the transmission of this virus.
CONTINUED ... next page
It is amazing and scary...sound the alarm!
all of this....it is so crazy...first of all I have had a pregnant daughter in law 5 months along having to work in a hospital in California...I mean come on now....early twenties and being pregnant and forced to work...had to give two weeks notice...finally that is done...also I have a son 4th year in med school working in the hospital in the college town till they ran out of protective gear for him....a temporary respite...things are so crazy to put a medical student and students to assist in this disaster...of course I asked my son what does he think of people who think this is all a hoax or a theory...he replied to me that yes people are dying and that it is disrespectful to think that people are not dying and quite a few thankfully not the numbers they were flippantly throwing out...who can foresee that?
online today!
Comrade three residences fiddler on the roof drops out.
"If I were a rich man, bida, biddy, bida, bida, bida, biddy I'm a BUM!" Clearing the way for creepy, sniffy, disoriented/cognitively challenged Joe Biden. Which way? For him to be summarily thrown under the bus at the brokered convention, where three time criminal losers are born. Will only take a brief neurological examination, for justification. Hilary, and Bubba Cigar in 2020. The dems' shameless plan all along. First cut Bernie's throat, for Hilary, again. Then really have the party jump from frying pan into the flames, again. Can't make this stuff up folks.
After attacking Trump's coronavirus-related China travel ban as xenophobic, Dems and media have chan
Within hours of President Trump's decision to restrict travel from China on Jan. 31, top Democrats and media figures immediately derided the move as unnecessary and xenophobic -- and they are now beating a hasty retreat from that position as the coronavirus continues to ravage the economy and cause scores of deaths.
Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden led the way, quickly attacking what he called Trump's "record of hysteria, xenophobia and fear-mongering" after the travel restrictions were announced, and arguing that Trump "is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency." Biden, on Wednesday, didn't criticize the travel ban in any way, and instead accused Trump of "downplaying" the virus early on in remarks to Fox News.
"I had Biden calling me xenophobic," Trump told Fox News' "Hannity" on March 26. "He called me a racist, because of the fact that he felt it was a racist thing to stop people from China coming in."
In March, another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., conspicuously insisted at a Fox News town hall that he wouldn't consider closing the U.S. border to prevent the spread of coronavirus, before condemning what he called the president's xenophobia. The Vermont senator has since taken to promoting "Medicare-for-All" and workers' rights amid the outbreak, while deferring to health experts on border closings.
For many news outlets, the about-face has been stark. A Jan. 31 article in The New York Times quoted epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm as saying that Trump's decision to restrict travel from China was "more of an emotional or political reaction."
Weeks later, though, the paper reported that dozens of "nations across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus," and did not criticize any of them for the move.
The Washington Post ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for "empathy" and slamming the White House for acting "in disregard of WHO [World Health Organization] recommendation against travel restrictions."
In March, The Post finally acknowledged that critics accused China and WHO of "covering up or downplaying the severity of an infectious disease outbreak."
A week earlier, Vox confidently declared that "The evidence on travel bans for diseases like coronavirus is clear: They don’t work." The article originally referred to the "Wuhan coronavirus" in its headline, before left-wing journalists and Democrats argued that terminology was racist.
Vox also tweeted on Jan. 31: "Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No." On Mar. 24, Vox deleted that tweet, writing that it "no longer reflects the current reality of the coronavirus story."
The Heritage Foundation's Lyndsey Fifield identified numerous other instances of prominent media outlets criticizing the travel ban, in many cases without issuing any kind of correction. For example, The Verge cautioned that Trump's policies "contradict advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said yesterday that countries should not restrict travel or trade in their response to the new virus."
BuzzFeed News asserted that "barring foreign travelers from China, along with making U.S. citizens self-quarantine at home ... likely violated civil rights laws, without leading to any real lowered risk of a U.S. outbreak," citing "global health law expert" Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University.
STAT, a health and medicine news site, reported that the travel ban was similar to calls from "conservative lawmakers and far-right supporters of the president," even as "public health experts ... warn that the move could do more harm than good."
On Jan. 15, when the first American with coronavirus returned from China, House Democrats were ceremoniously carrying their articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate. (The president was acquitted overwhelmingly on each article of impeachment.)
Continued in comments...
Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden led the way, quickly attacking what he called Trump's "record of hysteria, xenophobia and fear-mongering" after the travel restrictions were announced, and arguing that Trump "is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency." Biden, on Wednesday, didn't criticize the travel ban in any way, and instead accused Trump of "downplaying" the virus early on in remarks to Fox News.
"I had Biden calling me xenophobic," Trump told Fox News' "Hannity" on March 26. "He called me a racist, because of the fact that he felt it was a racist thing to stop people from China coming in."
In March, another Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., conspicuously insisted at a Fox News town hall that he wouldn't consider closing the U.S. border to prevent the spread of coronavirus, before condemning what he called the president's xenophobia. The Vermont senator has since taken to promoting "Medicare-for-All" and workers' rights amid the outbreak, while deferring to health experts on border closings.
For many news outlets, the about-face has been stark. A Jan. 31 article in The New York Times quoted epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm as saying that Trump's decision to restrict travel from China was "more of an emotional or political reaction."
Weeks later, though, the paper reported that dozens of "nations across the world have imposed travel restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus," and did not criticize any of them for the move.
The Washington Post ran a story quoting a Chinese official asking for "empathy" and slamming the White House for acting "in disregard of WHO [World Health Organization] recommendation against travel restrictions."
In March, The Post finally acknowledged that critics accused China and WHO of "covering up or downplaying the severity of an infectious disease outbreak."
A week earlier, Vox confidently declared that "The evidence on travel bans for diseases like coronavirus is clear: They don’t work." The article originally referred to the "Wuhan coronavirus" in its headline, before left-wing journalists and Democrats argued that terminology was racist.
Vox also tweeted on Jan. 31: "Is this going to be a deadly pandemic? No." On Mar. 24, Vox deleted that tweet, writing that it "no longer reflects the current reality of the coronavirus story."
The Heritage Foundation's Lyndsey Fifield identified numerous other instances of prominent media outlets criticizing the travel ban, in many cases without issuing any kind of correction. For example, The Verge cautioned that Trump's policies "contradict advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), which said yesterday that countries should not restrict travel or trade in their response to the new virus."
BuzzFeed News asserted that "barring foreign travelers from China, along with making U.S. citizens self-quarantine at home ... likely violated civil rights laws, without leading to any real lowered risk of a U.S. outbreak," citing "global health law expert" Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University.
STAT, a health and medicine news site, reported that the travel ban was similar to calls from "conservative lawmakers and far-right supporters of the president," even as "public health experts ... warn that the move could do more harm than good."
On Jan. 15, when the first American with coronavirus returned from China, House Democrats were ceremoniously carrying their articles of impeachment against Trump to the Senate. (The president was acquitted overwhelmingly on each article of impeachment.)
Continued in comments...
online today!
A challenge to the lefties.....
...Yes. Well, anyone who's (or whose, for certain females) caught my act here knows what a homophobic, xenophobic, transgenderophobic, misogenist, racist, sexist, etc. old wanker I am. And I know how smug the feelings of moral superiority grow, when some use these terms. Images of the fat little landlord, cigar in cake hole, on the way to collect exorbitant rents, fine threads and top hat going, kicking the many poor little urchins out of the way as I go, counting the cash and mumbling. But unlike the other side, who'd rather die than admit any good on the right side of politics, I'm critical of my hero President Trump at times, and have praise for the benefits of progressive policies. Incidentally, their behavior is a major feature of Trump Derangement-Hilary Deficit Syndromes. Now I do digress, but I ask, can one get any more left than Castro's slave state of Cuba?`They fight free market think still, and broadcast propaganda on the short wave frequencies, while China and Russia have long abandoned the workers' paradise corrupt policies, that planned production and one political party bring. Well, having worked in the neighborhood, it's a place I know a thing or two about, especially their health system. Just the facts, ma'am. As soon as Fidel banished CIA puppet Batista, he saw the many needs of his people, not least of which were poor nutrition, illiteracy, and almost no functioning health system, unless one was rich. Between summary executions of rivals, and banging every skirt in Havana, he acted. So a system was created, de novo, based on broad principles of public health. Their medical schools cost next to nothing to attend, and lead to the MD after six years of study, which involves lots of time in rural clinics, in and out of country. They do have technology, but still place great emphasis on physical diagnosis, long poopooed in many other undergraduate medical schools. But there are two other remarkable little know things. Each year, a gaggle of USA students are accepted to train there, at no cost, and must only agree to work after graduating in places of great need. Pretty slick, since the training is good enough for US licensure, and subsequent US residency training. But here's the kicker. Cuba's top biomedical scientists were sent for training to the world's top centers for molecular biology and genetics, returning to start value oriented focused research programs. There have been striking discoveries, especially regarding the crab. For instance, one novel vaccine based treatment, for some advanced stage lung cancer patients, has turned a death sentence into a long standing chronic illness. Slick. So much so, that one of our premier cancer research centers, Roswell Park Institute in upstate New York, (a tiny spinoff of the famous Vierk Institutes), has gotten approval from the Trump Menstruation, to build a new research facility near Havana. For those who like apples, how's them for hate filled apples?
put your phone away, Donald
When I was a kid growing up in Detroit I remember GM, Ford and Chrysler all closing down for the summer to retool their factories for the autumn new car runs. Leading into the retool, designers, engineers and planners like my father and vendors spent months going over blueprints and cost sheets, getting ready for the changeover.
But Trump, our most stable genius, knows better. He needs but to issue a tweet order and GM will there the next day shipping ventilators to hospitals in overnight express.
Get real, Donald. GM is working on it -working on it day and night. Just because you screwed up, doesn't mean GM will.
But Trump, our most stable genius, knows better. He needs but to issue a tweet order and GM will there the next day shipping ventilators to hospitals in overnight express.
Get real, Donald. GM is working on it -working on it day and night. Just because you screwed up, doesn't mean GM will.
Mr Neverwrong changes course
Trump Extends Social Distancing Guidelines Through End of April
The president, facing grim figures from his health advisers, starkly reversed an earlier upbeat assessment that the country could relax the guidelines by Easter.
By Michael D. Shear March 29, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump retreated Sunday from his desire to relax coronavirus guidelines by Easter, announcing instead that all Americans must continue to avoid nonessential travel, going to work, eating at bars and restaurants, or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month and perhaps until June.
The grim recommendation, which the president made in the White House Rose Garden, came just a day before the end of a two-week period in which the world’s largest economy has largely shut down with staggering consequences: businesses shuttered, schools and colleges emptied, and social life all but suspended.
Mr. Trump said repeatedly last week that he wanted to reverse such drastic measures soon, perhaps by Easter, on April 12, in the hopes of restarting the economy. But public health experts — including the president’s own advisers — had warned that trying to return to normal life too quickly risked allowing the virus to rage, increasing the likelihood of more infections and raising the number of deaths.
The president finally appeared on Sunday to acknowledge the possibility of deaths on a large scale and back down from weeks of insisting that the threat from the virus might be overblown. In the past month, Mr. Trump has vacillated between accepting the need for aggressive action to limit the pandemic and complaining that such moves will harm the economy.
But on Sunday, his mood seemed somber as he conceded the need for another month of collective pain. Citing figures from his advisers that showed that as many as 200,000 people could die from the virus even if the country took aggressive action to slow its spread, Mr. Trump said the restrictions must continue, even if it meant more sacrifice in the days ahead.
“During this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. Have to follow the guidelines,” Mr. Trump told reporters, with members of the government’s coronavirus task force nearby. “Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread.”
“We can expect that by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery,” Mr. Trump said. “We think by June 1. A lot of great things will be happening.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he and other public health officials had urged Mr. Trump not to relax the guidelines too soon. Dr. Fauci — who in television appearances earlier in the day had offered the estimate of 200,000 dead — said Mr. Trump was affected by those predictions.
“The idea that we may have these many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure that we don’t do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing,” Dr. Fauci said. He said extending the guidelines until April 30 was a “wise and prudent decision” that Mr. Trump reached after discussions over several days with Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coordinator of the effort to fight the virus, and other health officials.
“Dr. Birx and I spent a considerable amount of time going over all the data, why we felt this was a best choice for us, and the president accepted it,” Dr. Fauci said.
The president, facing grim figures from his health advisers, starkly reversed an earlier upbeat assessment that the country could relax the guidelines by Easter.
By Michael D. Shear March 29, 2020
WASHINGTON — President Trump retreated Sunday from his desire to relax coronavirus guidelines by Easter, announcing instead that all Americans must continue to avoid nonessential travel, going to work, eating at bars and restaurants, or gathering in groups of more than 10 for at least another month and perhaps until June.
The grim recommendation, which the president made in the White House Rose Garden, came just a day before the end of a two-week period in which the world’s largest economy has largely shut down with staggering consequences: businesses shuttered, schools and colleges emptied, and social life all but suspended.
Mr. Trump said repeatedly last week that he wanted to reverse such drastic measures soon, perhaps by Easter, on April 12, in the hopes of restarting the economy. But public health experts — including the president’s own advisers — had warned that trying to return to normal life too quickly risked allowing the virus to rage, increasing the likelihood of more infections and raising the number of deaths.
The president finally appeared on Sunday to acknowledge the possibility of deaths on a large scale and back down from weeks of insisting that the threat from the virus might be overblown. In the past month, Mr. Trump has vacillated between accepting the need for aggressive action to limit the pandemic and complaining that such moves will harm the economy.
But on Sunday, his mood seemed somber as he conceded the need for another month of collective pain. Citing figures from his advisers that showed that as many as 200,000 people could die from the virus even if the country took aggressive action to slow its spread, Mr. Trump said the restrictions must continue, even if it meant more sacrifice in the days ahead.
“During this period, it’s very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines. Have to follow the guidelines,” Mr. Trump told reporters, with members of the government’s coronavirus task force nearby. “Therefore, we will be extending our guidelines to April 30 to slow the spread.”
“We can expect that by June 1, we will be well on our way to recovery,” Mr. Trump said. “We think by June 1. A lot of great things will be happening.”
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, said he and other public health officials had urged Mr. Trump not to relax the guidelines too soon. Dr. Fauci — who in television appearances earlier in the day had offered the estimate of 200,000 dead — said Mr. Trump was affected by those predictions.
“The idea that we may have these many cases played a role in our decision in trying to make sure that we don’t do something prematurely and pull back when we should be pushing,” Dr. Fauci said. He said extending the guidelines until April 30 was a “wise and prudent decision” that Mr. Trump reached after discussions over several days with Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coordinator of the effort to fight the virus, and other health officials.
“Dr. Birx and I spent a considerable amount of time going over all the data, why we felt this was a best choice for us, and the president accepted it,” Dr. Fauci said.
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