https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/04/fda-prevents-import-of-masks.html

Another gate-keeper function that needs to be suspended.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/The-evidence-on-Covid-19-is-not-as-clear-as-we-think

Much has been said about how we calculate coronavirus death rates. One way is to divide Covid-19 deaths by the number of cases. Another is to divide Covid-19 deaths by the number of infections. The results can be wildly different.

There is another subtlety that affects the calculation: How deaths are reported.

Continue reading “The Spectator: How deadly is the coronavirus? It’s still far from clear” →

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/german-infectologist-decimates-covid-19-doomsday-cult-open-letter-merkel

I’m not a fan of the headline given to this story (ZH merely repeats it from the original), but I find the doctor’s questions and discussion intriguing.

Continue reading “ZH: German Infectologist Decimates COVID-19 Doomsday Cult In Open Letter To Merkel” →

Link to source (Bacon’s Rebellion).

The article makes the sensible point, at length, that face masks can stem the transmission of a virus. Significantly, wearing a mask in public may not protect you from being infected by others, but can protect others from being infected by you. I expect we’ll be hearing more about this as time goes on.

The notion holds for both complex manufactured face masks and simple, homemade ones. One also needs to know how to put on and take off a medical mask.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/03/in_this_time_of_crisis_its_the_private_sector_coming_through.html

I’ve been thinking the same thing as the writer of this commentary, but I’m not as much inclined to see Trump’s leadership in response to coronavirus as something new and different. Watching the daily task force news briefings, I’m more reminded of how we used to do things in this country, primarily by enlisting the private sector and private citizens to respond to big needs. It is the way Trump is attempting to do them now and it is almost instinctually familiar.

Continue reading “AT: “In this time of crisis, it’s the private sector coming through”” →

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/there-are-least-8-strains-coronavirus-heres-what-we-know

This is something new, to me at least. Fascinating!

If, for some reason, you don’t like ZeroHedge, you can validate the sources by following the internal links in the story.

Link to source (pdf).

Shared without comment.

Link to source.

I dunno. I see issues:

• Immunity is a physical trait over which a person has no meaningful control, like skin color or birth ethnicity.
• Would it be fair to discriminate against non-immune people, condemning them, potentially, to poverty and social disenfranchisement?
• How do we then pick winners and losers among the immune?

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/03/a-solution-if-we-act.html

I’m not sure we need, or even want, a Manhattan Project for coronavirus. Explicitly:

• We may well learn enough about the virus to mount an effective public health strategy without it; and
• There are substantive liberty risks in each of the three phases of the approach: test, trace and isolate.

Still, the full-speed-ahead, let-not-a-single-child-suffer crowd, may find some comfort in knowing that a comprehensive technocratic solution is feasible.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/quarterly-bulletin/2014/money-creation-in-the-modern-economy.pdf?la=en&hash=9A8788FD44A62D8BB927123544205CE476E01654

I sometimes encounter incredulity when I point out that banks create money by making loans, or that this is the source of most modern money. This easy to read paper may be of some interest to those who don’t believe it, but may also be of general interest.

Continue reading “Bank of England: Money creation in the modern economy” →