My first recommendation is "Why Americans Are Allergic to the Truth" by Drew Magary at GEN. That August 4 piece is a reaction to an (updated) August 4 article by Ed Yong at The Atlantic, "How the Pandemic Defeated America." Both of these are cogent no-nonsense summaries.
Next is Christiano Lima's August 19 Politico piece, "Report: 'Superspreaders' of bogus health news racked up billions of views on Facebook." The frightening, quantified gist is that people click on the questionable and crazy far more often that they click on guidance from actual credentialed experts or professional organizations.
Finally is an August 20 CNN report by Christina Maxouris, Eric Levenson, and Nicole Chavez, "US coronavirus: Georgia, Texas, and Florida lead the country in cases per capita." The title says it all, as the late closings and early re-openings of these three states have come home to roost. And what, the governors were expecting different outcomes? Based on what? As I said many months ago, these politicians were at odds with the science. Either they were going to be correct, or the science was going to be correct. Unfortunately for me, there were no available betting odds.
These four pieces are each a must read.
Bob Dietz
August 21, 2020
