Sunday, April 19, 2020

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

From Nicole Saphier MD, "As unemployment approaches 20%, each 1% rise can result in 3.3% spike in drug OD/ 1% increase in suicides (National Bureau of Economic Research). If unemployment hits 32%, ~77,000 Americans may die as a result [emphasis added]. Will economic fallout mortality be greater than the virus itself?"...  In the post COVID-19 world handshakes and high-fives will be discontinued in sports but slaps on the butt will still be OK (not that there's anything wrong with that)... CNN's Brian Stelter Tweeted, ""I crawled in bed and cried for our pre-pandemic lives. Tears that had been waiting a month to escape" and all I could picture was this guy. CNN's motto really should be "News for airports and pajama boys"... Hindsight is only 20/20 if you take time to look back and understand what happened in the first place... Good advice... Recently read an excellent thought experiment - anytime you read anything about COVID-19 (or anything for that matter) mentally replace the words "assessment," "analysis," "projection," "prediction," and "forecast" with the word "guess." It helps change how you feel about the author's conclusions and allows you to think more clearly...

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