[QUOTE=kladner;545855] more than 50 people appear to have [URL="https://time.com/5829264/wisconsin-primary-coronavirus/"]contracted coronavirus[/URL] as a result. Ensuring that people can vote without risking their lives is a basic duty of government, one at which Wisconsin failed.[/QUOTE]Not accurate. The source of the infections of the identified in-person voters was not determined; it could have been that trip to the gas station or grocery store. The countermeasures employed at my Wisconsin polling place were impressive in their extent, going well beyond anything I've ever encountered at businesses that remain open. No other location has insisted my ID or anything else be wiped down with disposable sanitizers, for instance. The problem in Wisconsin is we have an incompetent governor who is panicked and trying to do things that are illegal. Even though Wisconsin is in the lower half of the 50 states for Covid19 incidence per million population.

CDC f*cks up bigtime again...
 

[url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/cdc-and-states-are-misreporting-covid-19-test-data-pennsylvania-georgia-texas/611935/]‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?'[/url] |The Atlantic
[quote]The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is conflating the results of two different types of coronavirus tests, distorting several important metrics and providing the country with an inaccurate picture of the state of the pandemic. We’ve learned that the CDC is making, at best, a debilitating mistake: combining test results that diagnose current coronavirus infections with test results that measure whether someone has ever had the virus. The upshot is that the government’s disease-fighting agency is overstating the country’s ability to test people who are sick with COVID-19. The agency confirmed to The Atlantic on Wednesday that it is mixing the results of viral and antibody tests, even though the two tests reveal different information and are used for different reasons. This is not merely a technical error. States have set quantitative guidelines for reopening their economies based on these flawed data points…. Viral tests, taken by nose swab or saliva sample, look for direct evidence of a coronavirus infection. … Antibody tests, by contrast, use blood samples to look for biological signals that a person has been exposed to the virus in the past. A negative test result means something different for each test. If somebody tests negative on a viral test, a doctor can be relatively confident that they are not sick right now; if somebody tests negative on an antibody test, they have probably never been infected with or exposed to the coronavirus. (Or they may have been given a false result—antibody tests are notoriously less accurate on an individual level than viral tests.) The problem is that the CDC is clumping negative results from both tests together in its public reporting.[/quote]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;546253][URL="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/05/cdc-and-states-are-misreporting-covid-19-test-data-pennsylvania-georgia-texas/611935/"]‘How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?'[/URL] |The Atlantic[/QUOTE]
It's hard to accept "mistake" as a description. It's pretty easy to see this as another sign of corruption; of science politicized.

[QUOTE=kladner;546285]It's hard to accept "mistake" as a description. It's pretty easy to see this as another sign of corruption; of science politicized.[/QUOTE]Numerous states are similarly screwing up the statistics collection by mingling negatives from multiple test types, and also miscounting / misattributing deaths. Some of it is probably from a fundamental design flaw of the primate brain; when clear thinking is most needed, during stress, that's when the ability deserts us

Sweden, which had come under harsh attack from public health experts for not imposing an all-out lockdown, is now being held up by the World Health Organization as a model for the future. [URL]https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/23/still-more-evidence-that-lockdowns-were-a-massive-waste/[/URL]

Lockdowns cause excess deaths. Scaling for Wisconsin, it's an additional 3 per week.
[URL]https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/15/how-much-are-we-spending-to-prevent-one-covid-19-death-millions-billions-trillions-nobody-knows/[/URL]

[QUOTE=kriesel;546351]Sweden, which had come under harsh attack from public health experts for not imposing an all-out lockdown, is now being held up by the World Health Organization as a model for the future. [URL]https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/23/still-more-evidence-that-lockdowns-were-a-massive-waste/[/URL][/QUOTE]
I would suggest that you listen to this show which deals with Sweden and COVID-19 and why things are as they are. [url]https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/o2hoez9/coronavirus-sweden-goes-rogue[/url]
If you go transcript you can see over 90 citations that link back to their sources.

[QUOTE=kriesel;546351]Sweden, which had come under harsh attack from public health experts for not imposing an all-out lockdown, is now being held up by the World Health Organization as a model for the future. [URL]https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/23/still-more-evidence-that-lockdowns-were-a-massive-waste/[/URL][/QUOTE]

The WHO's model for the future apparently involves a large-scale population cull - but the NYPost article re. the WHO spokesdude linked in your linked piece is not helping it case by misrepresenting the numbers:
[quote]The country, which has a population of 10.3 million, has seen more than 20,300 cases and 2,462 deaths as of Thursday afternoon — far higher than its Nordic neighbors, which implemented stricter containment measures, the latest data shows ... By contrast, Denmark has recorded 9,206 cases and 443 deaths among its 5.8 million residents, while Norway has seen 7,680 cases and 207 deaths among 5.4 million, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. Finland confirmed just 4,906 cases and 206 deaths out of a population of 5.5 million.[/quote]
So let's re-crunch on a [cases, deaths] per million population, rounding to the nearest 10:

Sweden: 1970, 240
Denmark: 1590, 80
Norway: 1420, 30
Finland: 890, 40

Sweden's death rate is indeed far higher than that of its neighbors, but its overall case rate is not. I can think of 2 obvious possible reasons for the disparity:

1. Sweden is underreporting its case count - deaths OTOH are harder to hide;

2. There is some demographic/medical-system in Sweden which is upping its death rate. (As in Italy, with its large elderly population).

[QUOTE=ewmayer;546366]So let's re-crunch on a [cases, deaths] per million population, rounding to the nearest 10:

Sweden: 1970, 240
Denmark: 1590, 80
Norway: 1420, 30
Finland: 890, 40

Sweden's death rate is indeed far higher than that of its neighbors, but its overall case rate is not. I can think of 2 obvious possible reasons for the disparity:

1. Sweden is underreporting its case count - deaths OTOH are harder to hide;

2. There is some demographic/medical-system in Sweden which is upping its death rate. (As in Italy, with its large elderly population).[/QUOTE]Sweden may also be further toward herd immunity with a higher prevalence of antibodies in the general population. We see from various studies around the US, significantly different figures; 4% in CA, 21% NYC, 32% Boston. Consider the possibility that Sweden has reached a point that others will also reach, later, but with addtional deaths from suicide, drug ODs, and other mechanisms. Many doctors are warning of avoidable rises in death rates from a) hopelessness, and b) failure to find and treat at a normal rate things like cancer and heart disease.

[QUOTE=kriesel;546387]Sweden may also be further toward herd immunity with a higher prevalence of antibodies in the general population. We see from various studies around the US, significantly different figures; 4% in CA, 21% NYC, 32% Boston. Consider the possibility that Sweden has reached a point that others will also reach, later, but with addtional deaths from suicide, drug ODs, and other mechanisms. Many doctors are warning of avoidable rises in death rates from a) hopelessness, and b) failure to find and treat at a normal rate things like cancer and heart disease.[/QUOTE]Go listen to the show about Sweden that I linked to and stop speculating.

Death rates for other items are going to be interesting case studies. Many air pollution lives will be saved. There are also indications that some people are not dying of heart attacks and strokes (which may be related to work/commute stress.)

"like it was designed to infect human cells". [url]https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6158843835001[/url]

[QUOTE=kriesel;546446]"like it was designed to infect human cells". [URL]https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6158843835001[/URL][/QUOTE]
Natural selection plays a role once the virus makes the jump to humans.

[QUOTE=kriesel;546446]"like it was designed to infect human cells". [url]https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6158843835001[/url][/QUOTE]The usage of the word "designed" is misleading.

There are millions (?) of mutations occurring in viruses all the time. Many of those mutations either have no effect or render it inert. But occasionally it makes it more potent. With enough time and enough mutations even the most unlikely things will happen.