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Albert Pinto Profile picture
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13 Nov 20, 16 tweets, 9 min read
The definition of ideology is that it is immune to empirical refutation. Facts literally bounce off it.
2/ Scientists who have to pay attention to how reality works & not ideological words are devastatingly clear as to which governments least followed science in dealing with COVID-19.
economist.com/graphic-detail… Image
3/ Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, or find prettier ways to talk about it, or ignore it, doesn't go away. The 21stC is the Age of Consequences — of reality biting back, and we must learn to bend to its will. #viraltime #climatechange
4/ Amazing how we managed to screw it up by doing the exact opposite of what successful countries did to control virus. Just though about it all wrong & backwards while refusing to learn from others or from Reality smacking us in the face ht @yaneerbaryam endcoronavirus.org/papers/covid-s… Image
5/ Nothing skewers the endless excuses that West couldn't possibly be expected to stop spread of 'uncontrollable' disease than @Birdyword's piss-takes. ImageImage
6/ "For a successful t̶e̶c̶h̶n̶o̶l̶o̶g̶y̶ Pandemic Control, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Feynman.

'You can't gaslight a virus'
7/ Its been an awesome year for scientific workers in figuring out a beast of nature. How else would we know how the virus spreads or how to treat it? But hard to act on uncertain knowledge & hold the spirit of Nullius in verba("Take nobody's word for it")
8/ "Observing how the rich countries are handling the pandemic, developing countries are reassessing the inferiority complex they have held for centuries"
says Ha-Joon Chang. Rich world needs Meiji Restoration humility & import state capacity from E Asia.
9"It is ridiculous western wishful thinking & orientalism to think it [E Asia Corona success] was just social cohesion because they are 'Confucian'. They had the science right & their institutions worked.And people responded to advice of scientists"@zeynep
10/Sadly, things came to pass as I feared last January after Hubei lockdown. West (unlike E Asia) got stuck in ideological rigidity of 'Chernobyl moments'/'totalitarians' & didn't get magnitude of really-existing-danger during Feb's sleepwalk. 1 year later!
11/ And one year later, theres only more to add to the thread of corona scandals. The vaccines remain the only light at the end of this terrible tunnel.
12/This scientifically informed NYT piece connects all the blunders. How different would things be now if 'Cordon Sanitaire' epidemic control strategy in Xi's world-historical 3rd Feb speech was acted upon in Europe & US? #viraltime translate.google.com/translate?sl=z… Image
13/ Scientific expertise+ldrshp played role in countries choosing strategy early (#CrushTheCurve elimination not #FlattenTheCurve).
2ndly ability of state & society to actually *do* #TestTraceIsolate actions reqd, see thread for how Aus/NZ copied E Asia.
14/ "We have just become fundamentally unserious as a society in learning from intl best practices, & complacent if not arrogant...This is dooming not only our Covid response, but also our creaking healthcare...infrastructure, & public admin"-@arpitrage arpitrage.substack.com/p/the-cognitiv…
15/ Good thing Sunday is the Coronavirus' day of rest.
16/Why #FlattenTheCurve was defeatist & #CrushTheCurve superior.
"As Americans refuse the most basic of precautions under the pretense of freedom,Taiwan knows what real freedom looks like:ability to have a drink at a bar w/out fear" bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

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More from @70sBachchan

Albert Pinto Profile picture
25 Dec 20
Between the pandemic & california mega fires & american dysfunction 2020 has been Mike Davis' cassandraesque year. But every time you think he's hit Peak Bleak, turns out he's still climbing... substack.sashafrerejones.com/p/friday-decem…
thankfully mike davis was completely wrong about the uneven burden of Covid. It hit poor countries of the subcontinent & africa much less than richer europe & americas.
Terrible as covid-19 is, a reminder that it could have been deadlier. Spanish flu killed the young more than the old. 60% of global mortality, some 20 million of 1918-19's toll was in India. Industrial Agriculture & inequality as Mike Davis warns will eventually produce a monster
Read 6 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
30 Sep 20
Neither the first case on West Coast or Germany in mid-January snowballed. It was chain of transmission from China to Italy to NYC in early Feb that sparked transatlantic explosion.

Francis Collins on latest research integrating phylogenetics & travel directorsblog.nih.gov/2020/09/22/how…
1st mea culpa of WHO's line that precautionary travel restrictions are ineffective @adam_tooze. Tellingly, comes about in "wealth before health" lawsuit in Austrian ski resort.
nytimes.com/2020/09/30/wor…
E Asian govts did restrictions/screening passngrs/hotel quarantine in realtime Image
WHO anti-travel restrictions line was classic science & politics contest. This is @HelenBranswell Jan 26th report after vote to declare intl emergency went 50-50.
"Experts Warn of Possible Sustained Global Spread of New Coronavirus" statnews.com/2020/01/26/con… Image
Read 13 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
24 Sep 20
"Get rid of the ballots & you'll have a very peaceful - There won't be a transfer, frankly. There'll be a continuation"
Trump refuses a peaceful transfer of power if he loses in November
news.yahoo.com/trump-campaign…

Getting clear that Military will be required defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/…
At the moment of constitutional crisis on Jan 20th, 2021, will US military escort the former president from the White House or do nothing & watch Black Lives Matter plaza become Tahrir Square?

Open letter to Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen Milley defenseone.com/ideas/2020/08/… Image
3/ US will need a pacted transition to incentivize Trump leaving, w minimum violence. Republican & Dem elites will have to remove his fear of prosecution for manifest crimes. People protesting on streets cannot credibly commit to amnesty. ht @TomPepinsky
tompepinsky.com/2020/07/27/the…
Read 4 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
23 Sep 20
"Achieving carbon neutrality requires eliminating most fossil fuel use in power generation, heating, industry & transport...IF it is made the guiding vision for invstmt, innovation & policymaking in China"-@laurimyllyvirta

Litmus test: Canceling new Coal energyandcleanair.org/china-2060-car…
Climate is Natl Security policy is Industrial policy is Econ policy #GeopoliticsOfGHGs

Its a Market mover, a Oil & Gas importer vulnerable to blockades, an "Electrostate", a Green Power Politics move, a ecologically fragile state all rolled into one economist.com/briefing/2020/…
"Chinese companies have invested in mines from DRC to Chile..securing access to minerals needed for solar panels,electric vehicles...
Unable to be a Petrostate, it is becoming an Electrostate, investing strategically all along the chain from mine to meter" economist.com/briefing/2020/… Image
Read 33 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
14 Sep 20
microbial life in Venus 1 Earth 0
Who else is feeling the cognitive dissonance of today's extraordinary claim of possible microbial life signature on Venus while we crash earth's ecosystems.

Good day to revisit @KenCaldeira's 2018 Carl Sagan lecture on our mad, bad, exceptional species! kencaldeira.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/car… ImageImageImage
Carl Sagan made his scientific name analysing Venus' atmosphere & proposed its runway greenhouse gas effect.

Life in the Clouds of Venus (1967)
nature.com/articles/21512…



A bittersweet day.
Read 10 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
4 Sep 20
While political press occupies itself with heat & light of US-China decoupling, the financial press (FT, WSJ, Economist) has been telling story of "Chinese coronavirus success --> quick recovery -> increased attractiveness to Western firms & banks" 1/
2/ Since late '19 China's govt has pursued conscious coupling. It lifted foreign ownership caps on asset mgrs & let firms in:
Payments - MasterCard/Paypal got approval for JV
Invstmt banking - BlackRock/JPMorgan "" for mutual fund
Insurance - Allianz, HSBC
economist.com/finance-and-ec…
3/ To Western firms, China offers 2 rare things: GDP growth & interest rates higher than zero.

~$200 billion has entered capital markets from abroad. Foreign holdings of Chinese stocks & bonds by June were 50% & 28% higher than a year earlier economist.com/finance-and-ec… Image
Read 8 tweets

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