Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Friday, May 29, 2020

Bad Data; Bad Policy

Politico reports that we have a huge data problem in trying to make public policy around Covid-19. States have been artificially boosting their testing numbers in order to hit benchmarks to re-opening. There is some evidence states like Florida are hiding Covid deaths in flu and pneumonia counts.

There is a cost to having bad inputs when you are trying to create public policy.  That cost is currently human lives.

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