Lying With Statistics, COVID-19 Edition
For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.After this morning’s leak of the CDC projection of COVID-19 deaths, the White House pushed back and said it would continue to use its own internal modeling: A senior White House official said the document would not change the White House planning…
More About That FEMA/CDC Report
Now that I’ve had some time to breathe, let’s take another look at that FEMA/CDC chart that was leaked earlier today: There are two things that jump out at me: The model (red line) has been consistently conservative. The actual death toll (blue dots) has been 3-4x higher. The red line isn’t merely a trendline…
“Designed to Create a Climate of Fear”: Amazon VP Quits After Company Fires Activists
Smith Collection/Gado/Getty For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.Tim Bray, a vice president at Amazon, announced he’s leaving the company because of the “chickenshit” firing of activists who spoke about conditions at the company’s massive warehouses. Friday was my last day at Amazon: https://t.co/kXYDPdNbs7[Server’s running a little hot but give…
CDC Seems to Project Half a Million Deaths From COVID-19
We are so fucked: As President Trump presses for states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in the number of cases and deaths from the coronavirus over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1, according to an internal document obtained by The New York…
California’s Red Counties Are Revolting
Here in California, sparsely populated red counties are in revolt: Yuba and Sutter counties in Northern California are set to allow many businesses to reopen Monday in defiance of Newsom’s statewide stay-at-home order….Modoc County, with fewer than 9,000 residents, allowed all businesses, schools and churches to reopen Friday as long as people inside could stay…
As Gun Violence Surges During the Pandemic, Mayors Beg Congress for Help
Pat Nabong/Chicago Sun-Times via AP For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.On an unseasonably warm and sunny day in early April, Chicago hit a deadly milestone: 21 people were shot—including a 5-year-old girl who was wounded while sitting on a front porch. Seven of the 21 people shot…