Favorites January 12th 2022

Jan 13, 2022

Standard libertarian solution: Let people sell their kidneys Techno-libertarian solution: Reduce regulatory burden so scientists can rapidly invent 3d-printed kidneys! 👍

Caleb Watney @calebwatney

We should *obviously* let people get compensated for kidney donations. But it also seems unlikely to actually happen in the US before advancements w/ animal transplants/lab-grown organs eventually alleviate the supply crunch. https://t.co/Tmak7xTfa3

Regarding the pig heart transplant a few days ago.

MicrobesInfect @MicrobesInfect

Pfizer is racing ahead with plans to make 50 to 100 million doses of a new #omicron-specific version of its #coronavirus vaccine by March. Pfizer also is testing hybrid combinations of vaccine to target multiple coronavirus forms, as well as larger doses

washingtonpost.comPfizer plans to manufacture up to 100 million doses of omicron-specific vaccine by springCompanies face a big test in 2022 as they tweak vaccines, dosages and boosters to meet the threat of coronavirus mutations.

Larger doses? So basically Moderna?

Marginal Revolution @MarginalRevolt

Why Does the CDC Do This?:

ift.ttWhy Does the CDC Do This? - Marginal REVOLUTIONThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday advised Americans to avoid travel to Canada, citing “very high” levels of the coronavirus. Canada was placed under a Level 4 travel health notice — the highest category…“Because of the current situation in Canada, even fully vaccinated travele…

The Canadians probably shouldn't let in Americans, disease-risk-wise, but it's pretty strange for the US to be the ones restricting movement.

Darrell Owens @IDoTheThinking

Revenue from traffic cameras should go directly to traffic calming measures and transit, not a city's general fund. US cities use cameras as a fiscal scheme and thereby makes their budgets inherently dependent on bad street engineering they have fiscal incentivize *not* to fix.

Jodi Cohen @Jodiscohen

Chicago's "race-neutral" traffic camera tix are anything but. Drivers in majority Black and Hispanic neighborhoods have "felt the brunt of it the way white people didn’t." By @msanchezMIA + @indyemapolis, super cool art by @dizdizh, photos @anjalipinto https://t.co/EMFh1fJBAG

My formulation on this is that ideally the traffic calming will the *reduce* the revenue from automated enforcement, which in turn can be used to measure the success of the calming.

Maggie Koerth @maggiekb1

In the gap left by the CDC, Americans are turning to Twitter, blogs, and word of mouth for their COVID risk reduction advice. The result is a black market of information that makes it even harder to make the right choice.

fivethirtyeight.com‘Back Alley’ Advice Is Making The Pandemic WorseHey, buddy, wanna know what kind of mask to wear? And how many times you can wear it before you have to throw it away? Do you know where to swab to make sure yo…

This article didn't have much in the way of suggestions, it just documents how folks are feeling about the CDC during this pandemic. Anyway, speaking of back-alley COVID advice: