Jack William Bell @jackwilliambell@rustedneuron.com

But when I dug a little deeper I found this little notice indicating death counts for the last three days might be undercounted. Dang.

RT https://twitter.com/ZackDavisson/status/1244766519269003265

"For the first time in history the PNW's famous ability to isolate and shun our fellow beings has worked in our favor. Covid-19, meet the #Seattle Freeze."

I'm grumpy about public innumeracy again. Twitter is full of graphs like the attached pic and it's pissing me off!

Firstly, confirmed case counts are MEANINGLESS because each country is doing different levels and types of testing.

The closest thing we have to a reliable number is deaths. And even there some countries are deliberately under-reporting.

(Note: Mastodon let's me mark media as 'sensitive', but not as 'stupid'.)

Quarantine personality types.

This is going to bid high. "SIEMENS SERVO VENTILATOR 300A WITH SERVO SCREEN 390" https://www.ebay.com/itm/SIEMENS-SERVO-VENTILATOR-300A-WITH-SERVO-SCREEN-390/223468871758?hash=item3407c8604e:g:jtIAAOSw4ola4OmC

#COVID19

Trumps approval ratings on the FiveThirtyEight poll rollup have been dropping steadily since Feb 22nd. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings

That said, I'm frankly surprised they haven't been dropping even faster given his objectively terrible response to the #COVID19 crisis. And THAT SAID, I still don't expect it to drop below his hard-support numbers of 33%.

We'll see. He's slid further than this before and then done or said something racist and climbed back up again. 😕

Re-upping my hand-washing poster for SF fans. Feel free to re-use.

Related, this birsite thread is pretty scary. But I can't verify it's veracity and the local media isn't reporting this yet. https://twitter.com/scott_mintzer/status/1239290389963714562

#COVID19 #Seattle

Latest #COVID19 stats for the State of Washington. https://www.doh.wa.gov/emergencies/coronavirus

TL;DR 769 tested positive out of 9451 tested, meaning 92% were negative. (Which includes a #Seattle friend of mine.)

See pic for confirmed cases by age.

There are 42 dead, a known cases mortality rate of 5.4%. (Actual cases probably FAR exceed known cases, so this number may be high.)

Almost all the activity is in King and Snohomish counties right now, but that statistic will soon be relative to population.

Ireland isn't just cancelling St. Patrick's Day parades, they are shutting down the entire freaking country.

https://twitter.com/SimonHarrisTD/status/1239252019074011138

Could these two things be related?

I created a hand washing poster for SF fans.

One section of the article caught my eye, because I wasn't aware if the difference between reactions and results between Philadelphia and St. Louis in the 1918 flu epidemic.

View from my desk right now.

Update on Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC) and #COVID19: they have changed their minds and decided to postpone until next summer; effectively cancelling the event. https://twitter.com/emeraldcitycon/status/1235996413093273602

In today's #COVID19 news, #Seattle's Emerald City Comic Con is going forward and 100,000 people from all over the country will be flying into the biggest US infection hot-spot.

The company behind ECCC is offering ticket refunds to anyone unwilling to risk it. But I feel certain the money involved (literally tens of millions) played a strong hand in deciding to not cancel. (And in craven politicians not forcing the issue.)

I have a small collection of odd refrigerator magnets. Some are small plushies of real and fictional people, like Einstein, Sherlock Holmes, and Freud.

While going through a box of odds and ends I came across Freud's accessory: a plushie couch.

Paranoia: what if Trump WANTS a pandemic so he can declare a national emergency and cancel the next elections?

Rationality: no way, he'd have to totally gut and handicap the relevant agencies, then lie about the seriousness of the situation while it deteriorates

Keanu Reeves:

Birdsite thread: "A follow up to Saturday's analysis of undetected #COVID19 transmission in Washington State.." https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1234588787641970689

Over on the birdsite @SwiftOnSecurity is making a great point about how Google fucked up by trying to kill #RSS. https://twitter.com/SwiftOnSecurity/status/1234152634975576064

#relaventtomyinterests