Daily Archives: 7 October 2020

Likelihoods

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Scott Gottlieb and Yuval Levin had an uproar in their knickers in their Sunday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal.

The two center their piece on the failure of President Donald Trump, et al., to take precautions satisfactory to Gottlieb and Levin to minimize their chances of getting the Wuhan Virus. The money quote in their piece, though—from my perspective—is this:

For months, some of them condoned nonchalance about the virus, mocking precautions such as wearing masks as marks of weakness and dismissing public-health concerns as overwrought.

Disregard the distorted characterization of the behavior of “some of them;” what Gottlieb and Levin ignore of those “months” is the empirical demonstration of the low likelihood of getting a Wuhan Virus infection serious enough to be noticed, even in a high-contact, high traffic, high-interaction environment.

On second thought, accept their mischaracterization: that nonchalance emphasizes the low likelihood.

Lies of the Progressive-Democrat

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Progressive-Democratic Party Presidential candidate Joe Biden has been busy….

Falsely claimed wrote a USA Today op-ed in late January warning that a pandemic was coming and calling for action

Washington Post:

The article itself was more of an attack on President Trump…than a detailed plan for action against a possible pandemic

Falsely claimed 36,000 lives could have been saved “if he had listened to me…and acted just one week earlier”

Washington Post:

[H]e did not specifically call for social-distancing measures as early as March 1 or even March 8, though he implies that he did

Falsely claimed that he called for the use of the Defense Production Act “before anybody” and as early as January

PolitiFact:

A full 18 days before Biden made his first public comment on the act, Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary had publicly floated the idea, and Trump made it official the same day Biden made his remarks… We rate the statement False

Falsely claimed that he warned not to trust China “from the beginning”

Washington Post:

[H]e first said China could not be trusted Feb 26

Falsely claimed he called for US experts to go into China in January

Washington Post:

By the time Biden said this, US scientists were already on the ground as part of a team in Wuhan

Falsely claimed that the Trump Administration made “no effort” to get US medical experts into China to investigate coronavirus

FactCheck.org:

Joe Biden was wrong when he said that the Trump administration made no effort to get US medical experts into China

Falsely claimed he called for temporary hospitals to be built “months ago”

Washington Post:

Biden hadn’t raised building hospitals “months ago.” He first mentioned doing so March 12 during his speech on the coronavirus[.]

Falsely accused President Trump of refusing World Health Organization testing kits

PolitiFact:

The WHO never offered to sell test kits to the United States”

Falsely accused President Trump of eliminating the White House Pandemic Response Office

FactCheck.org

[S]ome team members were shifted to other groups, and others took over some of Ziemer’s duties[.]”

Falsely accused President Trump of muzzling scientists

FactCheck.org:

Biden went too far[.]”

His campaign falsely accused President Trump of “silencing a top CDC official”

The Washington Post:

4 Pinocchios

Falsely accused President Trump of cutting funding for the CDC and the NIH

Associated Press:

Biden is “wrong to say the agencies have seen their money cut[.]”

Falsely accused President Trump of calling coronavirus a hoax

The Washington Post:

4 Pinocchios

Falsely claimed “18,000 people got clemency” while he was Vice President.

Rolling Stone:

18,749 petitions for clemency were denied.