Favorites August 12 2021

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

Not sure people realize that the White House already purchased Pfizer & Moderna booster doses for everyone. axios.com/moderna-covid-… axios.com/pfizer-vaccine…

Huh, I think the numbers got so large that at some point I stopped tracking that we'd far past enough for two doses for everyone in the US.

Alec Stapp @AlecStapp

This developer is like “Keep talking, the building just got 10 feet higher” 😂

That's one way to do it...

Dr Rob Thompson @DrRobThompson

Kudos to whomever made this meme.

Many variations on this meme today. They've got everything: Russian Revolution, Tonya Harding, Jeapordy! hosts, Mad Men...

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

I wonder if lack of vaccination among Trump supporters will materially affect the electoral math.

Kevin Drum @kdrum

Trump counties are no-go areas for vaccination https://t.co/UEeCVmWZ0Z https://t.co/R0iMDGrLjV

Kevin Drum @kdrum

Trump counties are no-go areas for vaccination jabberwocking.com/trump-counties…

It may make it harder to gerrymander too. Plus, the census had some county level surprises today.

Justin Fox @foxjust

Pretty dramatic gap (made more dramatic by where I cut off the y-axis, of course) between what we thought NYC's population was and what the 2020 Census found

The NYC data was one of the biggest county-level census surprises.

Jason Shellen @shellen

A new, hopeful take on the road ahead in fighting COVID. Thank you @zeynep for this post and for saving countless lives by questioning the guidance to “not wear” masks in early 2020. theinsight.org/p/the-lure-of-…

Strong mandates are the clear way forward.

zeynep tufekci @zeynep

I've been hearing stories of people who aren't vaccinated simply because of fear of needles —yes, they *know* the rational arguments—and also stories of people whose loved ones helped them get it done: take them there, hold their hand, anti-anxiety meds, breathe-in, breathe-out.

From her follow-up based on the emails she's gotten since the article came out. Apparently needle hesitancy even impacts people's willingness to read about vaccines because of the pictures.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It really should not be legal for members of Congress and their spouses to trade individual stocks

Christina Wilkie @christinawilkie

Scoop: The stock that Rand Paul’s wife bought in the maker of Remdisivir early in the Covid pandemic was the only time in 10 years that Paul or his wife had purchased shares of an individual stock. With the great Dan Mangan. https://t.co/rHFYgAOHNh

This seems like a no-brainer.

Stephen Gordon @stephenfgordon

Revenues from property and wealth taxes in the OECD:

Via Noah Smith: 'Your regular reminder that America already has a wealth tax, called "property tax".' (all the more reason to make it work correctly in CA and abolish prop 13)

San Francisco, August 2021