For an organization who one would think care deeply about science, I'd say statements like this is problematic.
"With the nation’s death toll now exceeding 215,000, the coronavirus has killed more people in the United States than anywhere else."
It's problematic because it's not very clear how this number has been calculated. CDC themselves say this about their own number:
"For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death."
Also, from the same page:
"When COVID-19 is reported as a cause of death – or when it is listed as a “probable” or “presumed” cause — the death is coded as U07.1. This can include cases with or without laboratory confirmation."
So, 94% had other additional conditions (including heart disease, diabetes, and sepsis). And even then, not all cases had been confirmed/
It seems to me like 215,000 (probably/presumably) died _with_ COVID-19, but not necessarily from it.
In some countries in Europe, including the UK and some Scandinavian countries (I haven't been able to find the method for US), the number of deaths are counted in the following way:
"Deaths = the statistics on fatalities include deaths recorded within 30 days of the detection of COVID-19 infection in the individual. However, COVID-19 is not necessarily the cause of death."
But when Nature is using the number 215,000 in the way they did, it does not look very credible. Take a look at the whole statement:
"With the nation’s death toll now exceeding 215,000, the coronavirus has killed more people in the United States than anywhere else. Even adjusting for population size, the country has fared spectacularly badly. Despite having vast scientific and monetary resources at his disposal, Trump failed catastrophically when it mattered most."
To me that looks more like it's driven by Orange Man Bad, than by science.
"Healthcare disruption and emotional crises may have led to around a third of the 225,530 “excess deaths” in the United States between March 1 and August 1, 2020, a new study suggests."
Is it likely that 215,000 died from coronavirus, like Nature said? I'd like to see the math behind that.
Maybe you'll find it interesting, I don't know, but it looks like some numbers show that the average age of people who died with COVID-19, in England and Wales (I've heard similar numbers for Scotland and Denmark), are higher than the average life expectancy in those countries:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8821113/The-avera...
Does this suggest that getting COVID-19 increase your risk of getting older than average? Well, both yes and no, I guess. The numbers says so, but logic does not. My point is, a topic like COVID-19 death toll has become so hot that it's almost impossible to find credible information on what's up and down. We need to have more talks, more science, more data, more reason, openly, about what is going on. And we need them from reliable sources. Nature is cutting themselves out of this loop when they post something so one-sided as this article.
+1. Had they limited themselves to the critique of Trump, it would be fine. But they actually take the step forward and bathe Biden in glory.
He may be a good guy, all I know is he isn't Trump, and says some of the right things, ahead of an election. This could translate to absolutely anything.
Politicians don't suddenly change when they're elected president (it's not like the powers of the president would really permit that, either).
Nature, as a scientific publication, is probably one of the best at predicting that, given it's run by scientists, who have deep history in analyzing how policy decisions affect science.
It's always interesting to read when foreign news papers glorify my country. It's usually around election time.
Denmark, like any other country, has its good sides and its not so good sides. You've now heard the good sides, I guess because it supports the view the news paper would like to make.
There are some factual errors in this article, like the fact that we don't have minimum wages (we do, but it's negotiated by the unions, not the government), also the base salary (no overtime and weekend benefits included) for a McDonald's worker above 18 is closer to $17 than $22. McDonald's hire people as low as 13 though, whom of course have much lesser salaries. There are many 15-17 year olds in Denmark who works in this sector, where the minimum salary (for a 15 year old) is around $7 an hour. Add to that the fact that Denmark has one of the highest tax rates in the world, and the 15 year old hourly salary is reduced to $4.50 an hour after tax. The VAT in Denmark is 25%, so that's something you'd have to pay extra on more or less everything you buy.
Many things in the article are true. But also, many things have been left out in order to paint such a glorious portrait of the Happy Little Kingdom in the north, who fought Nazi's so intently (.. well, a few rebel Danes did, including my grandfather, but certainly not the government). Also, interesting to hear of a McDonald's worker who wanted to buy an apartment for her salary. I think she must live in a more rural area of Denmark, as we often hear stories of how police men and nurses cannot buy an apartment in the bigger cities, due to low salaries.
Education is free. True. Does that mean the education is good? Is it getting better or worse each year? Same should be asked about the other social benefits, daycare, hospitals, retirement homes etc. In general, Danes complain quite a bit about the yearly cuts being made to all of these areas.
I think there's a main point missing in the article: What is the price for all this? Ever since Denmark closed down we've heard the government putting into law ways to allocate more and more money to more and more areas of society. One of the more extravagant new rules I've heard of must be that of the artist, song writer, or similar, who, for example, have made a painting or a song that they couldn't sell, they would get compensated up to 100% of the artists estimated evaluation, had it not been sold before July. After July, the artist was free to sell it, without having to pay anything back to the government. (I haven't been able to find the article on this to verify it, so I do hope it was maybe just fake). In any case, we hear some numbers in the news here, for the Corona bill, and it certainly is scary. I suspect, in time, articles about Denmark will begin to appear in non-liberal news papers, about all the flaws of Denmark's society and its social-democrat run government.
We do love America though, it's one of the favorite travel destinations for Danes traveling outside Europe. Yet the accepted norm here is to blame America for most that is evil. Pollution. Greed. Even multinational corporations, like McDonald's, are seen as evil by many people around here. For that reason, danish news papers often carry stories like the one where McDonald's attracted quite some unwanted publicity, for having payed $0 in taxes in Denmark since 1981. Which incidentally could be one more of the reasons why the price of burgers are relatively low here.
We get paid to go to school and the education in any STEM field is good, especially if you're getting into programming (see KU and their Ponies for example). I'm a half-Dane and I've known enough of the American Life to know that yes life is much, much better here in Denmark to the point that most Danes around me appear completely oblivious to how good they have it.
Please, just find ways of being grateful. It's the good life and you were lucky enough to be born into it.
In many ways him and I came from similar backgrounds, only his situation was in many ways more harsh. Losing his one arm as a kid, growing up in a bad neighborhood in Holland, becoming a drug dealer, everything in his life was heading the wrong way. But he managed to pull himself together, leaving the country, training himself to achieve the most amazing life.
I read it without knowing anything about it, which I can recommend (so sorry for these first spoilers, but there’s so much more I won’t spoil).
I’ve also read Mans Search For Meaning, recommended in 12 Rules For Life. Also good, I agree.
The threshold for having learned something is subjective, at least in the context of software development.
If the intent is just to attain a basic understanding that enables one to complete projects and pass muster as an intern/junior developer, then it's likely possible with enough effort.
If the intent is to do a "deep dive" on each topic, or even attaining mastery during the course of a summer, then that's another matter entirely.
On that note, the concept of mastery is similarly subjective. Even the lowest definition of mastery for a single one of those topics lie far beyond the timescale of a single summer, at least for most people, and especially if they lack previous experience. Fortunately, very few people are masters of anything.
> If the intent is just to attain a basic understanding that enables one to complete projects and pass muster as an intern/junior developer, then it's likely possible with enough effort.
For me personally, that's the understanding. Enough to get a job as an intern or junior dev.
Seems to me like Nature is not worried about losing credability.