Safety in a Time of COVID

 

I would like to offer a life-saving safety tip, particularly to you young people, during these challenging times.

You read the news, you know that danger is out there, and you know that none of us is immune. But there are things you can do to keep yourself safe. If I could offer you one important tip, taken directly from today’s headlines, it would be this:

Yield to police authority.

If you get pulled over, comply. If you get arrested, submit. Never get into fistfights with police officers, don’t try to grab their guns, and don’t resist arrest.

A substantial majority of Americans believe that it’s a good thing that police have the authority to use deadly force when they carry out their duties. Don’t be stupid. Whatever problems may come from complying with the officers’ instructions, they are probably less onerous than being shot and killed as another poster child for dysfunction.

—-

What’s that? Masks? I don’t care about those. You’re not at risk from the Wuhan coronavirus anyway if you’re under 30.

 

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  1. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    It’s actually a serious answer.  An internet acquaintance with a similar background to mine (science-to-IT) but with bad politics, made the statement in his newsletter: “The plural of anecdote is not data.”  I had heard that line before, so I was prepared and told him that I thought the plural of anecdote was indeed data.  He had to admit it was.    

     

    • #31
  2. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    I think Flick’s point was that anecdotes get treated as data when enough of them pile up.

    That’s still an emotional response to anecdotes, since what we’re usually contrasting are statistically meaningful data, on the one hand, and a handful of anecdotes sufficient to carry emotional weight, on the other. So they still usually aren’t “data” in a meaningful sense.

    But they feel like data.

    The shooting of black men is a perfect example of that. It happens fairly often, because black men commit an awful lot of crime and so encounter an awful lot of police. The data suggest that police are actually less likely to shoot black men than they are to shoot white men, on a per-encounter basis. But the anecdotes pile up, and it only takes a few for people to feel like they must somehow reflect the data. Even though they don’t.

    • #32
  3. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    It’s actually a serious answer. An internet acquaintance with a similar background to mine (science-to-IT) but with bad politics, made the statement in his newsletter: “The plural of anecdote is not data.” I had heard that line before, so I was prepared and told him that I thought the plural of anecdote was indeed data. He had to admit it was.

     

    Yes and no. I think the important distinction between a bunch of anecdotes and a bunch of data is that we “analyze” anecdotes emotionally, as an upwelling of reinforcing impressions, whereas we apply statistical tools to data. I know that’s not a rigorous definition of anything, but I think it’s an accurate description of why anecdotes and data aren’t really the same thing.

    • #33
  4. The Reticulator Member
    The Reticulator
    @TheReticulator

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    It’s actually a serious answer. An internet acquaintance with a similar background to mine (science-to-IT) but with bad politics, made the statement in his newsletter: “The plural of anecdote is not data.” I had heard that line before, so I was prepared and told him that I thought the plural of anecdote was indeed data. He had to admit it was.

     

    Yes and no. I think the important distinction between a bunch of anecdotes and a bunch of data is that we “analyze” anecdotes emotionally, as an upwelling of reinforcing impressions, whereas we apply statistical tools to data. I know that’s not a rigorous definition of anything, but I think it’s an accurate description of why anecdotes and data aren’t really the same thing.

    Data are still data, but you can’t use statistical tests of hypotheses on them unless they meet certain criteria, such as being randomly selected from a larger population.  But I don’t refuse to be informed by data just because those statistical tests can’t be done.  If I hear a hundred people tell me the canard about only 6 percent of Covid deaths being the only ones that count as Covid deaths because the others all had co-morbidities, I use those data (plural of anecdotes) to know that somebody is pumping out bad information. Those hundred people didn’t all think that up by themselves.   But I can’t say that “most” people of this or that kind believe that unless I can do statistical tests. 

    • #34
  5. Henry Racette Member
    Henry Racette
    @HenryRacette

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    Henry Racette (View Comment):

    The Reticulator (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    It’s actually a serious answer. An internet acquaintance with a similar background to mine (science-to-IT) but with bad politics, made the statement in his newsletter: “The plural of anecdote is not data.” I had heard that line before, so I was prepared and told him that I thought the plural of anecdote was indeed data. He had to admit it was.

     

    Yes and no. I think the important distinction between a bunch of anecdotes and a bunch of data is that we “analyze” anecdotes emotionally, as an upwelling of reinforcing impressions, whereas we apply statistical tools to data. I know that’s not a rigorous definition of anything, but I think it’s an accurate description of why anecdotes and data aren’t really the same thing.

    Data are still data, but you can’t use statistical tests of hypotheses on them unless they meet certain criteria, such as being randomly selected from a larger population. But I don’t refuse to be informed by data just because those statistical tests can’t be done. If I hear a hundred people tell me the canard about only 6 percent of Covid deaths being the only ones that count as Covid deaths because the others all had co-morbidities, I use those data (plural of anecdotes) to know that somebody is pumping out bad information. Those hundred people didn’t all think that up by themselves. But I can’t say that “most” people of this or that kind believe that unless I can do statistical tests.

    Sure, and all that makes sense. “Anecdote” and “data” only butt heads when the two are deliberately contrasted. Because every time someone does that, puts them into deliberate opposition, they’re doing it for one reason: to illustrate that (what we mean when we say) anecdotes aren’t rigorous when compared to (what we mean when we say) data.

    So, back to your example: if we were to dig deeper and discover that roughly ten percent of the population came to that conclusion on their own — that it wasn’t a COVID death unless there were no comorbidities — without any detectable input from a source of “misinformation,” then your conclusion that there was such a source would be revealed as an unfounded conspiracy theory, however probable it seemed to you based on your anecdotal evidence.

    Again, that’s the point of contrasting data and anecdote.

    • #35
  6. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    I’m not sure if you’re agreeing or disagreeing, but all anecdotes are data.

    • #36
  7. JohnRacette Inactive
    JohnRacette
    @JohnRacette

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    I’m not sure if you’re agreeing or disagreeing, but all anecdotes are data.

    Flicker, I’m afraid your multi-level wit, in its brevity, was too quick for me. Now I know you’re not just an English teacher looking for trouble. 

    So, it sounds like there is some perceived value to anecdotal evidence after all, but, in case 1.4 billion Chinamen are just being emotional, we won’t be ordering the white rice dish around here.

    • #37
  8. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    Flicker (View Comment):

    JohnRacette (View Comment):

    When all you had was COVID, everything looks like a permanent disability.

    When does an anecdote get the upgrade to data?

    When it’s plural.

    Datum? Sheesh, man. Thanks for addressing the salient point of the question.

    I’m not sure if you’re agreeing or disagreeing, but all anecdotes are data.

    Flicker, I’m afraid your multi-level wit, in its brevity, was too quick for me. Now I know you’re not just an English teacher looking for trouble.

    So, it sounds like there is some perceived value to anecdotal evidence after all, but, in case 1.4 billion Chinamen are just being emotional, we won’t be ordering the white rice dish around here.

    Data has many categories and uses and descriptions.  For me simply repeatedly noticing a particular facial characteristic and putting it into a pattern and supposing a common cause, is data, though, anyone would casually say that it is all anecdotes.  Then when you hear the head of Psychiatry at a major teaching hospital make the same observation and suggest the same cause, though it was never scientifically researched — and never will be — it looks to me that all those anecdotal observations were data after all.

    Humorously: There’s anecdotes => data => statistics => lies (with apologies to Churchill).

    • #38
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