Get Curved | Russian Report Card | Anti-Vax America
August 19, 2020
The Good News
-
Across American Cities, Evictions Are Down (Bloomberg). The massive wave of evictions has yet to hit the United States, and perhaps it never will.
-
More promising news on the vaccine front: Immunity studies offer hope about COVID-19 recovery (CNN).
“The true republic: men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
Get Curved: A Lesson in Female Leadership
(Thierry Monasse via Getty Images)
It’s not just “she said, he said” anymore. Countries led by women have done a better job handling COVID-19 than those led by men. The early success of leaders like Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen, and Finland’s Sanna Marin attracted a plethora of headlines, but little academic attention. Now there’s a study for that.
Researchers analyzed statistics from 194 countries and concluded that the proactive and coordinated policy responses adopted by female leaders early on produced “systematically and significantly better” COVID-19 outcomes on average as those led by men. “Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities,” said Supriya Garikipati, a developmental economist at Liverpool University, one of the report’s co-authors. “In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances …. [ certainly helping] to save lives, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of deaths in these countries.”
The researchers analyzed differing policy responses and subsequent total COVID-19 cases and deaths through May 19. In order to draw reliable comparisons between countries, they introduced a number of variables to help examine the raw data. Among the datasets considered were GDP, total population, population density and proportion of elderly residents, annual health spending per head, openness to international travel, and level of gender equality in society in general.
Additionally, since only 19 of the 194 countries studied were led by women, the authors also created so-called “nearest neighbour” countries to offset the small sample size — pairing Germany, New Zealand and Bangladesh with male-led Britain, Ireland and Pakistan, for example. “This analysis clearly confirms that when women-led countries are compared to countries similar to them along a range of characteristics, they have performed better, experiencing fewer cases as well as fewer deaths,” Garikipati said.
Locking down their countries significantly earlier than male leaders indicated the female leaders “were risk-averse with regard to lives.” But as that approach could have longer-term economic implications, it also suggests the women were “more willing to take risks in the domain of the economy” than their male counterparts.
(Misha Friedman via Getty Images)
- After three years of investigating Russia’s 2016 election interference, the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee released its nearly 1,000-page report Tuesday. The report lays out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian government officials, as well as other Russians with ties to the country’s intelligence services.
- The report means a bi-partisan Committee panel agreed with the findings and approved the publication of an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign attempting to sabotage the American election in an effort to help Donald Trump become president, and some members of Trump’s inner circle were open to receiving help from a foreign adversary of the United States.
- The report did not go so far as to say the Trump campaign engaged in a coordinated conspiracy with the Russian government. But it did show extensive evidence of contacts between campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin, including the longstanding association of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, identified for the first time as a “Russian intelligence officer.”
- The report said the unusual nature of the Trump campaign — staffed by longtime associates, friends, and other businessmen with no government experience — “presented attractive targets for foreign influence, creating notable counterintelligence vulnerabilities.” It also found that two other people, who met at Trump Tower in 2016 with campaign members Manafort, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr., had “significant connections to Russian government, including the Russian intelligence services;” also, the connections between one of the individuals, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and the Russian government “were far more extensive and concerning than what had been publicly known.”
- A White House spokesman downplayed the report, calling it a “partisan witch hunt” and a “never-ending, baseless conspiracy theory peddled by radical liberals and their partners in the media.” (NYT)
Communist Excommunication
- Professor Cai Xia was a Communist Party insider who taught for 15 years at the Central Party School in Beijing, the Communist Party’s top academy. During her teaching career, the outspoken professor cheered on what she believed were signs that China’s leaders might loosen their political grip, making her an uncommonly prominent voice for democratic change.
- But she felt increasingly frustrated over party leaders’ unwillingness to match economic changes with political ones. She retired in 2012 when Xi Jinping took power. Afterward, she became progressively alarmed as the president was showing a truly draconian turn. She continued making speeches, writing essays, and supporting other critics even as censorship and political pressure intensified under Xi.
- In 2019, when one of China’s most prestigious universities suspended a law professor and placed him under investigation after he published a series of essays warning of deepening repression under Xi, Cai moved to America, where she continued denouncing both the Communist Party and Xi. After comments she made about the party becoming a political zombie that needed jettisoning — comments that circulated online last month — the Central Party School took action.
- On Monday, Cai was expelled from the Communist Party. She also lost her pension and other retirement benefits, leaving her to face daunting uncertainties in her new home in America. Even so, she is relieved she can finally speak her mind without fear of persecution. “Now that they’ve expelled me, I’m really happy, because at last I’ve regained my freedom,” she said. (NYT)
Additional World News
- Under Hong Kong national security law, Beijing forges a loyal opposition (WaPo, $)
- What a difference a couple of months can make: Wuhan coronavirus: From silent streets to packed pools (BBC)
- Milk Tea Alliance: How A Meme Brought Activists From Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Thailand Together (Vice)
- Xi Jinping Is Not Stalin (Foreign Affairs). Be weary of overly-simplistic geopolitical analogies.
- Trump Wants Snapback Sanctions to Kill the Iran Nuclear Deal. Britain, France, and Germany Can Save It. (Foreign Policy)
- Despite U.S. sanctions bid, Iran aims to keep nuclear deal alive until U.S. election (Reuters)
- Officials say Israel, Sudan close to peace agreement (ABC). Can Netanyahu net his second diplomatic breakthrough?
- Indians erect banners, pray for Kamala Harris to win U.S. election (Reuters)
- Brazil police say that indigenous protest continues to block key grain highway (Reuters)
- The UK Government Has Bailed Out Companies Complicit in Human Rights Abuses and Environmental Destruction (Vice)
COVID-19
- Fearing a ‘Twindemic,’ Health Experts Push Urgently for Flu Shots (NYT, $)
- Coronavirus pandemic is worsening transgender mental health to alarming levels (WaPo, $)
- Scientists Put Masks to the Test—With a Cell Phone and a Laser (Wired)
- UNC Experience Should Be A Lesson To Other Universities, Says Faculty Chair (NPR)
- Is it safe to send kids to school or daycare? Health experts weigh in. (CNN)
- ‘Unprecedented’: Los Angeles schools to test all 600,000 students for COVID-19 (Guardian)
Unsure of the Cure
- New data from the NBC Tracking Poll shows that only 44 percent of American adults say they would get a government-approved COVID-19 vaccine if one becomes widely available, while 54 percent said they wouldn’t get it or weren’t sure if they would. The differences in opinion are stark among demographic groups. A majority of Democrats, seniors, Asians, those making at least $100,000, and those with college degrees all say they would get a vaccine if it was approved by the government.
- In every other demographic group polled, a majority say either they wouldn’t get an approved vaccine, or weren’t sure they would. Increases in income correlate with respondent’s level of comfort with the vaccine. 37 percent of those making under $50,000 say they would get a vaccine, while 61 percent said they wouldn’t or weren’t sure. 45 percent of those making $50,000 to $99,999 say they would get an approved vaccine, while 54 percent say they wouldn’t or were unsure. And for those making $100,000 or more, 55 percent say they would get the vaccine, while 44 percent wouldn’t or were unsure.
- Unsurprisingly, there’s a significant partisan divide. Among Republicans and those Republican-leaning, just 36 percent said they would get the vaccine, while 64 percent said they wouldn’t or weren’t sure. But 58 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said they would get the vaccine, while 42 percent said they wouldn’t or weren’t sure. Independents aligned more closely with Republicans, with 37 percent saying they would get the vaccine and 63 percent saying they wouldn’t or weren’t sure.
- The data also showed the more formal education people have, the more likely they are to get a vaccination. 68 percent of people with a postgraduate degree said they would get vaccinated while just 9 percent said they wouldn’t. But only 36 percent of adults with a high school degree or less said they would get vaccinated.
- Asian Americans are the only racial group in which a majority of adults — 59 percent — expressed comfort with getting vaccinated. Conversely, only 24 percent of Black adults say they would get a government-approved vaccine for themselves and their families.
- Given the widespread uneasiness surrounding a potential cure, it appears creating a vaccine will only be half the battle. For public health experts, perhaps a public campaign to restore trust in modern medicine will also be necessary in snuffing out this virus. (NBC News)
No IOU for UIUC
- In 2017, Jeffrey Brown, dean of the business school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, had a brainstorm that many thought was harebrained. Brown said the school should insure itself against a calamity that could cause a giant drop in student tuition, like “a big flu scare that caused none of the students to show up on campus.”
- Chinese students were paying the school millions to attend, and school administrators recognized the risks associated with becoming overly reliant on student tuition from a single foreign country. So they took out a $60 million insurance policy to cover the $60 million in tuition that Chinese students paid to the university, in case an unforeseen event precipitated a sudden drop in Chinese student enrollment. Fast forward to 2020, and Brown doesn’t look so eccentric anymore.
- In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, a majority of Chinese students returned to China, where many will stay as schools have turned to online-only models for the fall semester. And the Trump administration has stated it will deny visas to first-year international students if their universities offer online-only classes, potentially barring tens of thousands of Chinese students from entering the US.
- “That insurance policy raised a lot of eyebrows when it was first reported on a few years ago,” said the author of a book on Chinese Millennials, “but it started to look smarter and smarter as the trade war heated up.” Now with COVID-19, it looks absolutely brilliant. (Axios)
Additional USA News
- Keynote Speaker? How About 17 of Them (NYT, $)
- When they go low… Michelle Obama goes where no former first lady ever has (CNN)
- Sanders Supporters Realize Their Party Is Bigger Than They Are (Atlantic, $)
- Susan B. Anthony: Trump pardons suffragist arrested for voting before 19th Amendment (WaPo, $)
- A false anniversary: The 19th Amendment didn’t give women the right to vote (Vox)
- Trump claims Democrats are behind California’s rolling blackouts (Politico)
- Postmaster general suspends changes to postal service to avoid any impact on election mail (NBC). Delivering the news we all hoped for.
- Elon Musk Is Now the Fourth-Richest Person in World (Bloomberg)
- Businesses warn they won’t participate in Trump’s payroll tax plan (Politico). Many see the potential tax burden in the future and want out.
- S&P 500 hits high as Big Tech thrives in COVID recession (USA Today)
Take Cover!
- From the “Why Didn’t We Think of That” files, YouTuber Allen Pan of MythBusters: The Search fame has come up with a simple solution to deal with those anti-mask rascals. He’s invented a gun of sorts that launches a mask straight onto people’s faces.
- Pan used the pistol-style grip from a spray paint can, a CO2 canister’s solenoid valve, and parts from a car’s brake line to construct his launcher. The mask is launched toward the offender’s face, and bola weights wrap around the target’s head. After some successful testing at home, Pan took his ingenious steampunk-style launcher on the road to try it out on some maskless California beach bums.
- Unfortunately, Pan found that the wind and “debatably shoddy craftsmanship” limited its practical real-world application. But the video’s a real winner. (CNET)
Additional Reads
- A Scanning Sensation: In a Touch-Free World, the QR Code Is Having Its Moment (Wired, $)
- No, Your Phone Doesn’t Have a ‘COVID-19 Sensor’ (LifeHacker)
- How social justice slideshows made by activists took over Instagram (Vox). Putting the power in PowerPoints.
- 175 Years of Discovery (Scientific American)
- Silicon Mountain Range? Tech Workers Are Living the American Dream—in Canada (Wired, $)
- Google Maps is getting a lot more detail (Verge)
- New York Attorney Charged for Scamming Millions from Lottery Winners (Complex)
- ‘Latinx’ Hasn’t Caught On Among Adults, Pew Research Finds (NPR)