Coronavirus News (302)

Worried About Covid-19 in the Winter? Alaska Provides a Cautionary Tale The state is seeing record case numbers, adding to evidence that the virus is poised to thrive as the weather grows colder. ...........  winter could bring the most devastating phase of the pandemic. .......... the coronavirus is more virulent in colder weather and lower relative humidities ...........  some viruses persist longer in colder and drier conditions; that aerosolized viruses can remain more stable in cooler air; that viruses can replicate more swiftly in such conditions; and that human immune systems may respond differently depending on seasons. ............. “It’s going to be a very tough fall and winter for the entire world” ..............  One of the challenges that Dr. Zink has consistently faced is convincing residents to wear masks and stay distanced, two tools that public health experts have said can help reduce the spread of the virus. 

How to Keep the Coronavirus at Bay Indoors Tips for dodging the virus as Americans retreat from colder weather: Open the windows, buy an air filter — and forget the UV lights.

‘It Has Hit Us With a Vengeance’: Virus Surges Again Across the United States Unlike earlier outbreaks concentrated in the Northeast and South, the virus is simmering at a worrisome level in most regions.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused nearly 300,000 more deaths than expected in a typical year

How Data Science Can Win the Debate on Police Reform solving the problem starts with better data. ........ bringing academic rigor and science to what is often a very emotional debate .......... Last year alone, police were responsible for almost 2,000 known deaths in America. It’s a leading cause of death among young men, right after heart disease and cancer. ........... bias manifests at so many levels in the system. ............  we’re massively underestimating the problem because of data limitations and the poor quality of existing statistical analyses. ........... How do you quantify racism? ............. that entire source of bias that went into stopping someone in the first place. ............. What about the upfront work in hiring and training that would help root out bias in police departments? ................. we can dial back or eliminate many controversial aggressive tactics because their purported benefits just aren’t supported by the data. I’m thinking of things like police militarization and no-knock SWAT raids that the data shows seem to damage police from a public perception angle, but they don’t actually make officers safer, which was the promise going in. ................. the role of diversification, which is one of the oldest proposed hiring reforms in policing ...................  female officers use far less force. ........ the best evidence we have right now says diversification can help .............. a study in New York looking at stop-and-frisk during the mid-2000s, which was out of control in its volume during that period. Upwards of 90% of people being stopped on the street were found to be guilty of no crime, and the vast majority of these stops were of young Black and Latinx men. ..................  officers in many ways are like a lot of other bureaucrats that we’ve studied for a long time. They respond to incentives, they want a paycheck, they want to please their boss or at least not get in trouble. We can use some of those same managerial tools to change behavior. .................. we spent a substantial amount of time over the past year critiquing a study that was published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the most prominent journals in the world. They claimed there was no racial bias in police shootings, and that study was recently retracted after a year of our critiques. The study was widely cited in the media and in Congressional hearings, but when you stripped away all the statistical jargon, it became clear that all it was really showing was that most people who get shot by police are white. ....................  Sunlight is the best disinfectant, so we need more transparency about civilian complaints and how allegations of officer misconduct are investigated. .............. We have 18,000 police departments in this country.

A Biden Landslide? Some Democrats Can’t Help Whispering Democrats are still haunted by the ghosts of 2016. But some are allowing themselves to contemplate a Biden victory big enough to reorder the nation’s politics. ......... Biden could pull off a landslide in November, achieving an ambitious and rare electoral blowout ........... Democrats see flipping states like Texas and Georgia as key to a possible landslide ....... a commanding victory that sweeps Democrats to control of the Senate as well would set the stage for a consequential presidency, not just one that evicts Mr. Trump. ......... “That the people want to address climate change in a big bold way. They want to address health care in a big bold way. And they want to address education in a big bold way.” ............  a huge Electoral College victory and help Democrats retake the Senate. ......... “Lincoln was not an abolitionist, F.D.R. not a socialist or trade unionist, and L.B.J. not a civil rights activist,” Mr. Shahid said. “Three of the most transformative presidents never fully embraced the movements of their time, and yet the movements won because they organized and shaped public opinion.”