Our public health agencies will probably manage the next pandemic as ineffectively as they managed this one

Last update: Tuesday 2/28/23 

The editor of this blog earned a PhD in planning from one of the nation's leading universities. His studies alerted him to the benefits of strategic planning as well as to its inescapable limitations when there are fundamental disagreements within a society as to which goals are the most important to achieve.  In democratic societies, like the U.S.,  disagreements about fundamental goals are resolved by political compromises, with deference given to the goals of the leadership groups that gained the most votes in the most recent elections, deference but not blind acceptance. But in autocratic societies, like China and Russia, disagreements are resolved by strict adherence to the diktats of the elites currently in power; dissent is not tolerated.

Saving thousands of lives in red states; Governor Ron DeSantis, an imperfect messenger

Last update: Saturday 2/11/23

A previous note in this blog suggested that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida was a ruthless, racist, culture warrior who was also a MAGA-hatted, Trump successor wannabe. 

Nevertheless, that note went on to present CDC data that showed that his management of the COVID pandemic in Florida attained the same low number of deaths per 100,000 members of his red state's vulnerable 65+ residents as did California, the bluest of blue states.

COVID misinformation from infectious disease experts

Last update: Saturday 2/4/23 

Now that the COVID pandemic has morphed into an endemic, neither the conservative MAGA media nor the liberal/progressive mainstream pays much attention to COVID developments. This only leaves U.S. infectious disease experts as a significant potential source of COVID misinformation.