Favorites July 30 2021

Kenneth Baer @KennethBaer

This poll in @axios this AM is yet another reason to look at data and not what people say online or on Fox News. Vax mandates are popular. Even 45% of Republicans support them! No need to run scared from this.

Vaccines are a winning issue politically, we’ll see if the electorate has a long enough memory though.

Steven Buss 🥑 🌐 (@ NYC 8/16-19, DC 8/19-22) @sbuss

Hot take: workers should lose their jobs if they willingly put children at risk when they could simply just get a fucking shot

UESF @UESF

UESF supports the requirement that workers either be vaccinated or be offered regular testing as a measure to keep workers, students and communities safe. We reject the idea that workers would lose their jobs for being unvaccinated, particularly in the midst of an economic crisis

This statement from the SF Teacher's Union was very popular to dunk on today, this particular response was nicely straightforward. But seriously, do they think that vaccinated teachers are going to be willing to go on strike for the right of other teachers not to be vaccinated?

Nate Silver @NateSilver538

Yeah I'm trying to figure out why the CDC put such a negative spin on data that was largely unsurprising and very much in line with the consensus as it has emerged over the past several weeks.

Shane Crotty @profshanecrotty

The ‘leaked’ CDC presentation summarizes a lot of key Delta variant data, but it takes an unusually dark interpretation. Overall, the report basically restates what we have known for a month from England: https://t.co/rQEfBxLFAo

The NYT article yesterday about this CDC report was talked about a lot. Even White House advisers were angry about how the Times framed the report.

The Daily Beast @thedailybeast

People in Missouri are donning disguises to receive a coronavirus vaccine, according to a doctor there. Patients are worried about how their family members and friends will treat them if they reveal they have been vaccinated.

trib.alPeople in Missouri Are Getting the COVID Vaccine in Disguise, Doc SaysOne doctor said her patients are begging her not to reveal that they’ve been inoculated.

I mean, if the disguises get them vaccinated, I’m for it. But if you opened the article hoping to see someone in a halloween costume getting vaccinated, sorry to disappoint you.

Noah Smith 🐇 @Noahpinion

According to this forecast, gas generation has already peaked and will go into decline in a few years.

Nat Bullard @NatBullard

@Noahpinion So in our global base case it recovers a bit from COVID low, but not a lot, and starts declining thereafter. Peak will be later in US. From our global Economic Transition Scenario (published in 2020 and still in effect) https://t.co/ZSMkul1uE7 https://t.co/MYbNymhlCX

This is a follow-up to the news yesterday about renewables passing coal.

Angelica Oung @AngelicaOung

“We discovered a way to basically turn plants into little factories for making casein, so you don’t have to get it from a cow“ Genetic engineering FTW!

fastcompany.comThis startup just raised $75 million to make a more cheesy plant-based cheese‘We have a KPI internally for how long your cheese is stretching,’ says the founder of Nobell Foods.

All this thinking about artificial meat, good to see that progress is being made on dairy.

Matthew Boyle @bizboyle

Walmart, the nation's biggest private employer, is requiring its headquarters and regional staff to be vaccinated by Oct. 4, in a move that might set the standard for corporate America to follow. bloomberg.com/news/articles/… via @business

bloomberg.comBloomberg - Are you a robot?

This is really great to hear, I’m again surprised that we’ve apparently decided that it’s ok to mandate drugs that are still just EUAs, but if the FDA doesn’t want to move any faster, this is the only way. Although:

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

It’s great that America is stepping up vaccine mandates in response to Delta, but I hope the lesson we can all remember for the next pandemic is you want to roll out countermeasures *before* you are seeing exponential spread of pathogens.

This is good advice for the future, then again, we really don’t want to need this advice.

March 2021, Santa Cruz