Tuesday Tweets (now actually on Tuesday)

Those antibiotic-resistant viruses are the worst. https://t.co/McjkdW6M23

— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 10, 2020

From Vox:

Dr. Deborah Birx, a respected physician and experienced diplomat who seemingly serves as a voice of reason in her role as coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus task force, raised a lot of eyebrows on Thursday with her effusive praise of President Donald Trump as “attentive to the scientific literature and the details” during an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network.

“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data,” Birx said. “I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues.”

Neither Rain nor sleet nor snow...

This is the essential thread.

Okay, I've been with USPS for several years now, so here's my big dumb #SaveThePostOffice thread. I don't know how many tweets it's gonna take for me to ramble through my thoughts, so stick with me. Or don't, whatever.

— Dingus J McGee, ESQ* (@DingusJMcGee) April 10, 2020

The postal service is in the Constitution. It also has been in the movement conservative sights for decades. It didn’t all start with this president*. https://t.co/7SlTG5GS7w

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 11, 2020

Even Amazon and UPS have to use USPS to get to certain places. And guess what happens when USPS becomes private? You think UPS is going to waste money sending trucks for that one house in rural Michigan? Dream on! pic.twitter.com/rmJbQmBEoz

— Mehrsa Baradaran (@MehrsaBaradaran) April 10, 2020

Another baffling refusal to provide needed aid 1/ https://t.co/RnZrxaVdkt

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 12, 2020

Tyler explains everything

In which a George Mason economist asks the bold questions that no one else dares speak aloud. https://t.co/tK5ygMRaDm pic.twitter.com/YdZWll7EPw

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) April 12, 2020

I often read stuff that I don't understand and unfortunately don't have time to learn more about. However, I might still want to publicly criticize what I read. A good option in those situations, in my experience, is to question what the authors' GRE scores were. You're welcome.

— Darren L Dahly, PhD (@statsepi) April 12, 2020

And the punchline...

The funniest part is I am positive the model Tyler Cowen is critiquing is by Chris Murray of IHME at UW. The limitations are too perfect, and it is the most popular press popular model. Chris Murray's DPhil is in Economics.

— Dr Joseph Delaney (@Canadian_JACD) April 13, 2020

  

You should keep an eye on OAN

OANN claimed Covid-19 was created in a lab in North Carolina https://t.co/XHoizbHpEx

— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) April 11, 2020

oh man it never gets not funny that they used a picture of the guy from 2001 a space odyssey because the real guy had him as his twitter profile pic and they just didn’t realize it was a movie character because they’re all if jesse watters and brian kilmeade had a baby level dumb https://t.co/eoRvQhNhEI

— Matt HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC Negrin (@MattNegrin) April 12, 2020



More pandemic news

I was having a conversation with an epidemiologist a few days ago and one of the concerns we both had was that a bump in the overly sensitive IHME might cause an overreaction. https://t.co/0AOrjtnAi3

— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 8, 2020

The country that used to roll out three Liberty Ships every two days can't protect its health care workers with basic supplies.

— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 10, 2020

Essential IHME thread

1. Models have their strength and weaknesses. It's valuable to understand both. While the @IHME_UW model has certain advantages over other approaches, I want to focus here on a disadvantage, namely the absence of an underlying mechanistic / bottom up / process-based framework.

— Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) April 7, 2020

The most chilling idea here (that I had not thought of) is Singer’s point that using an antibody test as a back-to-work requirement would incentivize the desperate & unemployed to get infected, playing the odds. https://t.co/YwtEXzyFny

— Chris Shea (@cshea4) April 12, 2020

I am a professor of public management, and have done research both on disaster response and the types of administrative burdens that Stephens references in his column. Stephens is not just wrong, he is wrong in a way that is deeply illuminating. 1/ pic.twitter.com/RXEuAUBQ1e

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) April 11, 2020

 
From another of those subsidized conservative "think tanks" (and yes, this does require scare quotes).

There are maybe 20 reasons why this is stupid. But it’s important to know the most elementary. Those stats about the number of people who died in a given year are statistical estimates pulling in a wide range of data. The current number of COVID19 fatalities are... https://t.co/UwBOXLdGue

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 11, 2020

 

Meanwhile

I know there's a lot of other stuff going on, but surprised not to see more commentary about how weird it is for the U.S. president to be trying to organize an oil cartel 1/ https://t.co/KkUvxvcJz2

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) April 11, 2020

The networks (starting with radio) were the great synchronizers. Central time didn't have a delay. Pacific did. Particularly before cable, this meant that people in Chicago and New York tended to go to bed at literally the same time. Only the clocks said otherwise.

— Mark Palko (@MarkPalko1) April 8, 2020

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam makes Election Day a holiday and expands early voting https://t.co/zreCzHgRCa pic.twitter.com/Q9YUDAMnRv

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 12, 2020

And in closing

My 7 year-old niece Lilia is all of us, basically. pic.twitter.com/thhcIhSfrh

— Neil Irwin (@Neil_Irwin) April 11, 2020