The Sicatoka

Before (Fauci): A mask doesn’t matter. Now (Fauci): Wear a mask! Before (CDC): Highly transmissible on surfaces! Now (CDC): Not so transmissible on surfaces. And we keep going to them for expert advice. Finally weathercasters have someone to point at and say, “We’re more accurate than them!”

Just saw an interesting sentiment: All lives are equally valuable; all life ends in death; but, all deaths are not equally tragic. As I’ve already said I lost my mother to Alzheimer’s in March in a home that is now infected. I’m happy I could be with her to the end. A week later and she would have been alone because of full lock down. The folks dying in homes, the tragedy isn’t the death, but that they died alone.

Random thoughts: CA saying all mail in election because polling stations would not be safe. So why not put polling stations in Costco and grocery and gas stations and Walmart? They’re safe enough to be open ... right? I have two close relatives on the front lines of this. One is intern in Boston area hospital; one is nursing director of ND care center for elderly. The one flew back to ND recently and back to MA and said why not. She said demographics matter and she’s not in a target group and doesn’t work with target groups. The other looked at me and said based on my age and health status find something else to worry about. But both say this virus is “lazy” meaning it’s taking the old and the weak, and not much else. Would it be wrong to say Mother Nature is doing some pruning? Before you jump on me, I still have two close relatives in ND memory care facilities. I don’t want them to have to go alone. To me that’s the hardest part of all of this is the loneliness, for both the isolated living, and the dying.

Folks, I put no belief in a good working effective safe vaccine in under 18 months. It is herd immunity or bust. And yes the virus will take some. Virus gonna virus.

Was in Bismarck today. Maybe one in twenty with a mask.

Um OK. Would you want to try to breathe through that? I wouldn’t.

It must be good to be the Illinois governor's wife during a total lockdown. She was allowed to go to their Florida estate. Rules for thee, but not for her, eh? Near end of article. https://www.wsj.com/articles/nobody-likes-touristsuntil-they-stay-away-11590186890

"Expert": One dimensional thinking on a multidimensional problem.

In honor of https://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/28844-5g-corona-enter-at-your-own-risk/page/239/?tab=comments#comment-1132136 and https://forum.siouxsports.com/topic/28844-5g-corona-enter-at-your-own-risk/page/239/?tab=comments#comment-1132138 .. another Bryan Adams classic ... I got my first real exposure Got it at the five-and-dime Coughed 'til my lungs just bled Was the summer of Covid-One-Nine Me and some guys from school Stood together, not real far Me antibodies,, but granny got buried We spread that virus, near and far Oh, when I look back now That summer seemed to last forever And if I had the choice Yeah, I never wanna be there Those were the worst days of my life Ain't no use in complainin' When you've got no job to do Governor shut all the store fronts 'Cause of China wet market flu, yeah Standin' on your mama's porch You told me that you'd wait fourteen days Oh, and when you held my hand I knew that it was Wuhan fever Those were the worst days of my life Oh, yeah Back in the summer of Covid-One-Nine, oh Man we were killin' time We were just quarantined We needed to unwind I guess nothin' can last forever, two more weeks, no! Yeah! And now the times are changin' Look at the economy, it's just plain gone Sometimes when in the lockdown I think about China, I wonder what went wrong Standin' on your mama's porch You told me that it'd last just two more weeks, yeah Oh, and when you held my hand I knew that it was Corona virus Those were the worst days of my life Oh, yeah Back in the summer of Covid-One-Nine, oh It was the summer of Covid-One-Nine, oh, yeah Me and my baby in Covid-One-Nine, oh It was the summer The summer, the summer of Covid-One-Nine, yeah Note: I've made some tweets.

I said early on this lock-down would cause mental health issues. Well, I find myself agreeing with McFeely, and Derek Hanson on KFGO. See ... I was right.

Who is the most power man in Minnesota? Hint: He lives in St Paul ... and wears a red beanie. https://kstp.com/news/letter-to-governor-states-minnesota-catholic-churches-plan-to-defy-executive-order-by-reopening-next-week-may-20-2020/5736359/

Can someone explain it to me? Here's hint for all politicians: Ultimately, above and beyond every other issue, people vote their pocketbook.

Why do the newspapers scream the "134" number ... but not the the "2757" number? You know what number I want? 4.86% <-- That's the daily number* I need to hear because it has some context. The 134 means nothing on its own. *The math is left to the reader.

Vitamins C and D, and zinc, are the old school words that keep showing up in reports. And yeah, I'm also crunching Airborne for the vitamin C, as well as being very good about taking the daily multivitamin. Fundamentals.

I'm not a doctor, I don't play one on TV, and I didn't stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, however, from what I've read HCQ is not the main actor but is best as the catalyst for zinc to act as the virus blocker to the cells. If the President is not taking a zinc supplement as well he's not getting full value. That said, I had a grandmother who was not sick a day of my time knowing her. (Died of stroke.) She always had old school zinc throat lozenges in her house from Halloween to Easter and took one daily. If you came to visit you got to suck on one of those metallic beauties. She claimed it was for the throat to stop cold and flu. Now this HCQ and zinc stuff ... interesting ... I was on a vitamin D supplement before this. When this all started I went grandma old school and found some elderberry zinc supplements online (sorry grandma, but mine taste way better). And those two, zinc and D, keep showing up in various journals. Could it be fundamental overall immune system health, including vitamins and minerals, is key.

Great. < facepalm > https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/over-100-million-in-china-e2-80-99s-northeast-face-renewed-lockdown/ar-BB14ev9M

They need the tax revenues.

The editorial: https://www.inforum.com/opinion/editorials/6491333-Forum-Editorial-We-must-protect-livelihoods-not-just-lives

Experts are great at one-dimensional, single variable thought. But the world is a multi-factor problem. And this is why experts in one field are wrong far too often. Scott Adams’ book “Loserthink” is a pretty good treatise on why one—dimensional thinking gets you in trouble and how to think multi-factor. I didn’t realized I’d followed the advice until I realized I can think as a design engineer, an educator, a software geek, member of a board with fiduciary responsibilities to thousands, a testing specialist, a former power of attorney for a parent, and a former farm kid. Thinking about problems from all those perspectives is a good thing. If you only see things from one angle, you’re not seeing all of it.

Credentialed authorities are comically bad at predicting the future. But reliable forecasting is possible. Read More: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/how-to-predict-the-future/588040/?utm_source=atl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=share

When have you witnessed acquired power given up willingly.

Based on some recent tweets by him, it seems Mr. Schlossman may not completely agree with the Fargo Forum’s editorial board’s take today that (paraphrased) we must protect livelihoods as much as lives. PS - Since “skin in game” cred seems to matter here: You all know I lost my mother to Alzheimer’s recently. The same unit just test up 100% positive in the residents. Did I mention I have an uncle in that ward?

Regarding reporting: ”88 new cases!” — Ohhhh-kaaaayyy .... 1. They are not “new”. Testing just found them. Testing is a lagging indicator. (And speaking as a guy who’s done a lot of engineering testing, if test finds it, it’s too late. It’s already there and the money is spent, and you’ll spend even more to fix it.) 2. 88? How many tests were done? If that’s 88 for 88, gulp. If that’s 88 of 88,000,000 tests, yawn. (<— PS - that’s about the rate of leprosy cases in the US annually, yes, like Biblical lepers.) 3. Sample bias. We’re testing folks suspected. You’re starting with a biased sample set. You’re going to have more “finds”. Think of it this way, if you know fastball is coming you’re going to sit on the fastball and have a better at bat. Anecdote time: About 20 years ago I had reason to deal with media over a civil matter. I then learned that most media are not all that inquisitive or up on Civics 101, nor are they STEM minded. (I had to explain to a reporter what the ND Century Code is!) After consulting with my personal press advisor (PCM), I came to the conclusion that I (and you) should believe about half of what you see or read in the news. The raw data will more than likely be correct; however, the context or understanding of what it means will be questionable at best. And to ask them to explain why “percent daily positive” is more of a key stat than the raw “daily positives” number would be asking too much.

I’d love to see a chart of elevators and escalators per square mile compared to Covid cases per square mile. Like I said a while back, the story of this will end up being dense populations, ... and dense populations.