Complex systems, wicked problems. Society, technology, science and more. @Columbia professor. @NYTimes columnist. My newsletter is @insight: https://t.co/6Ky01N9JwA
I remember the initial buzz around the fraudalent Surgisphere HCQ papers that made it into The Lancet and NEJM (eventually retracted). Many with data/number/scientific sense *immediately* raised eyebrows, despite also thinking HCQ hype was false and misguided. Others rushed.
There's now a fairly robust post-peer review process, but takes a bit longer when the paper/study is coming from public health authorities and/or is in prestige journals. Running with papers quickly without diving into that process isn't a good idea. Not that anyone will listen.
Always read @kashhill . Many institutions use automated surveillance to decide if a student is cheating on tests as part of remote learning. Often, this means a clunky, unaccountable algorithm barely overseen by low-paid workers abroad has great power.
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Wow. A nursing home in Baltimore, oldest African-American one, did not lose *a single person* to COVID because as soon as they heard Trump say cases would soon go to zero, they realized it was going to be a catastrophe, stopped visits and masked up.
I post this regularly, and many express surprise. This is the current childhood immunization schedule. Many childhood vaccines are three+ doses, sometimes a booster. This is one reason why, unlike earlier centuries, we don't have cemeteries full of children. We've forgotten.
Hong Kong protests are in their fifth month despite an escalating crackdown. How? One surprising answer: the fate of China's Uyghurs. Many talked to me about it. They watched and learned. They've decided that they "may as well go down fighting." My latest.
YouTube may well be operating as a giant radicalizing engine through its recommendation algorithm—leading people down a rabbit hole of misinformation, hoaxes and incendiary content. My latest for the New York Times on one of the most overlooked issues.
Phishing (or malware) Google Doc links that appear to come from people you may know are going around. DELETE THE EMAIL. DON'T CLICK.
We urgently need to focus on ventilation. Six months into a respiratory pandemic, we're still not given sensible and practical guidance against short-range aerosol—airborne—transmission of COVID. I wrote about the science & what it means we should do now.
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