COVID misinformation in mainstream media, e.g., The NY Times ... #2

Last update: Thursday 9/19/22 

As the editor of this blog has suggested in previous notes, conservative media, e.g., Tucker Carlson's Fox News broadcasts, misinform by propounding blatant lies; whereas mainstream liberal/progressive media present the facts, but embed the facts in unfounded interpretations. 
The Your Coronavirus Tracker page of the NY Times has become a prominent dispenser of this kind of mainstream misinformation.

The questionable value of the CDC's Community Levels

Last update: Friday 9/23/22 

Editor's apology: OK, the image for this blog note is attention-grabbing click bait. Our planet is not being attacked by a gigantic, intergalactic, spiked-headed coronavirus. However, out-sized bad guidance from the CDC should be just as improbable. Nevertheless, it keeps happening. So here's a brief recap of a recent "attack" and a warning.

This Washington Post two-fisted pundit makes bad guidance worse

Last update: Tuesday 9/20/22 

Dr. Leana S. Wen reminds the editor of this blog of the overachieving "B" students in his undergraduate and graduate level courses during his twenty years as a university professor. Although they worked hard, usually harder than his "A" students, he gave them B's because they could name all of individual trees in his assignments, but they invariably showed no perception of the shape of the forest. 

Are our pandemic managers "Jared Kushners"?

Last update: Sunday 9/18/22 

First came the Peter Principle in 1969. According to Wikipedia, " The Peter Principle is a concept in management developed by Laurence J. Peter, which observes that people in a hierarchy tend to rise to 'a level of respective incompetence': employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent, as skills in one job do not necessarily translate to another." What, say you, has this to do with our management of the COVID pandemic? Patience, dear readers, patience ... :-)

Reminder ==> COVID.gov for booster shots

Last update: Monday 9/12/22 

Dr. Fauci commented during a recent White House press briefing that

"we likely are moving towards a path with a vaccination cadence similar to that of the annual influenza vaccine, with annual, updated COVID-19 shots matched to the currently circulating strains for most of the population." His statement struck the editor of this blog as a wise assessment ... except for the good doctor's reference to "most of the population". If a strong majority of the population were currently up-to-date on their primary doses and booster shots, this thumbnail portrayal of a "new normal" could not be challenged ... but, unfortunately, most of the population who are eligible for booster shots are nowhere near up-to-date on their booster shots. To be more specific, less than 30 percent of the most vulnerable members of the population, persons 65 and older, are up-to-date.