.@casssunstein lays out the prisoner's dilemma that Democrats find themselves in with the GOP, but doesn't quite lay out what game theory has taught us about the best way to proceed: Generous Tit-for-Tat (or Tit-for-Tat with Forgiveness). 1/9 bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
This @Radiolab episode describes the 1960s tournament with computer programs vying with one another in a version of a Cuban Missile crisis to see if they could avoid escalating to Armageddon. Here were the algorithms. 2/9 wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radio…
Massive Retaliatory Strike: Cooperate until the first attack, then retaliate the rest of the time. Result: mostly Armageddon. 3/9
Tester: Start with an attack. Back off if there's retaliation cooperate for a while. Then attack again. Tester is designed to see how much it can get away with.
If Tester plays Massive Retaliatory Strike, the result is Armageddon. 4/9
Jesus: Always be nice.
Lucifer: Always attack.
If Lucifer plays Jesus, evil wins. 5/9
Tit-for-Tat was the winning algorithm: 2 lines of code. 1) Start with being nice. 2) Do whatever the other side did on the last move. It retaliates only once.
That elicits cooperation from anyone inclined to cooperate, but it doesn't take any guff. 6/9
When playing against Jesus, cooperation prevails for all 200 rounds of the tournament.
Against Lucifer, Tit-for-Tat plays solid defense.
The weakness is the echoing still results in Armageddon. 7/9
The solution was Generous Tit-for-Tat (or sometimes called Tit-for-Tat with Forgiveness). Every tenth or so time, it doesn't retaliate. It offers cooperation. It leaves the door open to not simply screwing one another. 8/9
I don't know if the GOP playbook is Lucifer, Tester, or Massive Retaliatory Strike.
But the one way out is for the Blue playbook to Tit-for-Tat with Forgiveness. It requires unapologetic retaliation for dismantling norms, but still offers periodic tests of cooperation. 9/9
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Masks work? YES. This is appalling. Atlas offers no explanation for the increasing mountain of evidence in support, and instead offers only a bizarre and incoherent paper. I don't know why the administration wants to die on this hill.
In my May article on the regimen hospitals have used to stop spread of COVID19 (hygiene, distancing, masks, and testing at least symptomatic people), I review the copious evidence to then on why masks work. newyorker.com/science/medica…
Since that article, numerous corroborating studies have come out. This comprehensive review lays out the strong laboratory evidence of the ability of surgical masks and cloth masks to prevent transmission. europepmc.org/article/PPR/PP…
Warning for COVID scientists: An impostor is asking scientists for an interview using the email atulgawande65@gmail.com (not mine) and signature “Atul Gawande, Staff Writer, The New Yorker.”
These are fake. Do not respond. I use a bwh.harvard.edu address for work. 1/4
One scientist did respond. It led to back-and-forth emails and a brief phone call to settle on an interview time. The impersonator sent a Microsoft Teams-like link. The result was a hack that accessed the victim’s computer, phone, apple ID, business and home gmail accounts. 2/4
They also accessed Twitter and other social media accounts.
They have possession of the scientist's financial account details.
And most disturbing, they tried to get into the person’s home security alarm system. 3/4
And with the CDC under a political thumb, it’s crazy but fortunate we can rely on independent sources like Johns Hopkins’ @JHUSystems and @TheAtlantic’s @COVID19Tracking for basic facts on COVID19
Meanwhile, however, “The Trump White House has installed 2 political operatives at the [CDC] to try to control the information it releases about the coronavirus pandemic as the administration seeks to paint a positive outlook.“ apnews.com/article/electi…
Recently, @BrighamWomens had a COVID-19 outbreak among 20+ patients & staff. We rapidly traced and tested all contacts and advised quarantine. We deployed PCR testing in <24 hours for ~9,000 staff. We ID’d 52 total cases associated w the cluster and are containing the outbreak.
The White House now has an outbreak involving 20+ guests and staff. They have done no tracing, no broad testing. And the outbreak is spreading outward. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Not included in the @nytimes list are eleven more among debate prep staff reported by Cleveland public health authorities wkyc.com/article/news/l…
This boggles the mind. With sky high COVID infections and deaths rising back to 1000/day, this: In talks w Senate GOP over the weekend, “administration officials instead pushed to zero out the funding for testing and for the nation’s top health agencies” nytimes.com/2020/07/18/wor…
More details in this @washingtonpost story. “Several Senate Republicans including @SenBillCassidy (R-La.) are exploring pushing a testing and tracing provision in the next stimulus package but are expected to meet resistance from the White House.” washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020…
In addition to zeroing out $25B for testing and tracing, “The administration is also seeking to zero out $10 billion in new funding for the CDC in the upcoming bill.”
Important results: Remember the 2 MO hairstylists who saw 140 clients over 8 days while infected with COVID but everyone had worn masks? Contact tracers found ZERO secondary infections. More evidence that masks work. cnn.com/2020/06/11/us/…
By contrast, in Israel, two weeks after reopening schools, at least one infected student at a Jerusalem high school led to 130 cases among students and teachers. Dozens of schools had to be closed again as the outbreak spread. npr.org/sections/coron…
The likely difference: There was wide evidence students were not taking the virus seriously and were ignoring mask guidelines. jpost.com/israel-news/an…