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19 Dec, 4 tweets, 0 min read

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More from @math_rachel

Rachel Thomas Profile picture
19 Dec
Focusing on vaccines ALONE:
- Does not work (many countries tried & failed)
- Hospitals can still collapse
- Sig # of vaxxed get LongCOVID
- Rooted in neoliberalism: individual responsibility as soln to collective problems
We need: vaccines + N95s + ventilation + air filters 1/
Vaccines alone are not enough. We saw this with Delta in UK, Israel, Denmark, & others that reopened w/out masks. Denmark had >90% vax rate for over 12s and here’s what happened with Delta. (for vax: 2x against delta may be like 3x against omicron) 2/
If you are 3x vaxxed, you should still care:
- Breakthroughs not rare
- Significant # of breakthroughs get LongCovid
- You may need functioning hospital system
- Many are ineligible for vax (kids) or can’t mount antibody response (eg cancer patients) 3/

Read 21 tweets
Rachel Thomas Profile picture
18 Dec
Many leaders say people are fed up w/ restrictions, so we can’t try to do anything about Omicron:
- Premise questionable, as several polls show majority want mask mandates
- There is a TON government could do (but isn’t) that does NOT involve individual restrictions 1/
Things govt could do that are NOT individual restrictions:
Mail everyone free KF94s & rapid tests
Fund ventilation upgrades & air filters
Set indoor air quality standards
Paid support to isolate when sick
Public education: #LongCovid is hell
Public education: #COVIDisAirborne 2/
More things govt could do that are NOT individual restrictions:
Public education: KF94/N95 >>> cloth/surgical mask
CO2 monitors for all indoor spaces, results displayed clearly for all occupants to see
Replace all the "fight covid w/ hand-washing signs" 3/
Read 6 tweets
Rachel Thomas Profile picture
17 Dec
Once again, I can find more accurate info about omicron on twitter than by listening to CDC Director on major network television. 1/
CDC director says omicron cases doubling every 2 days, but provides no context & no indication that this is VERY BAD. Viewers would need to understand exponential growth, know current state of health care systems, and read between the lines to understand how serious this is 2/
Almost the entire interview is focused on getting vaxxed. She briefly mentions masks & hand-washing (still with the hand-washing) at the very end, but leaves general impression that everything is a-ok as long as you're vaxxed. 3/
Read 4 tweets
Rachel Thomas Profile picture
16 Dec
I'm glad @jeremyphoward & I could get our 3rd dose today! However, vax alone isn't enough. We need:
- Govt funding for ventilation upgrades & air filters
- FREE N95s/KF94s & rapid tests for everyone
- public education: #COVIDisAirborne
- public education: #LongCovid is hell Selfie of Jeremy and Rachel...
@jeremyphoward Our vaccine clinic had @WHO signs on proper hand-sanitizer use. What we need are signs about MASKS:
WHICH ones: KF94/N95/FFP2 (everyone there except us had surgical or cloth masks)
HOW: many folks weren't covering noses
WHY: b/c #COVIDisAirborne & you do NOT want LongCovid photo of sign reading: How ...
@jeremyphoward @WHO The "5 Ways to Fight an Airborne Virus" graphic would make for great messaging in a vaccine clinic (& everywhere). 2nd image here:

Read 4 tweets
Rachel Thomas Profile picture
15 Dec
Algorithmic mechanism design (eg ad tech auctions such as Google, multi-sided platforms such as Uber) contains an inherent contradiction:
- theory of preserving autonomy & rationality of participants
- reality of opaquely generating & exploiting information asymmetries
@jakusg 1/
The point of an auction is to incentivize truthful disclosures of preference & valuation; by contrast, Google, acting as an auction platform & multi-sided mechanism designer, is effectively profiling market actors so that it can extract more surplus for itself. 2/ Google's technical designs and business strategies defy assu
In privately controlled & highly automated digital platforms, algorithmic market-like mechanisms simulate how a market might behave without necessarily including any of the features necessary to constitute a market, such as freedom to deal or knowable information rules. 3/ Using platformed applications of mechanism design as case st
Read 7 tweets
Rachel Thomas Profile picture
14 Dec
How can we think about building systems not for individual end users, but for groups and communities? So much of computer science is limited by the assumption that there is an individual end-user who should be the benefactor of what we build.
- @marylgray keynote #NeurIPS2021 1/
ML gravitates to large scale data, even though it has rarely had a robust account of where that data comes from & under what conditions, and is almost always deeply disconnected from the social relationships that produced it. 2/
Data is power. Because data has become so powerful, we must transfer the tools of data collection, aggregation, & sharing from engineers to the communities in society that carry the risks. 3/
Read 9 tweets

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