The Core

Backtracking is fine when it's due to getting better evidence. The problem is that they seem to be bowing to political pressure. The BBC show More or Less just had an episode on plasma therapy, for example, and let's say that the FDA change of heart does not seem to be motivated by better science.

By some counters we passed 200k a few days ago.  Restrictions are easing across the country.  NY city is opening up schools.  California is about to open up gyms and movie theaters.  The administration is urging states to drop their mask mandates.  The flu season is about to start, which will add something to the mix.  We're very likely to be closer to the "easing" curves now.

And this

C.D.C. Testing Guidance Was Published Against Scientists’ Objections

A heavily criticized recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month about who should be tested for the coronavirus was not written by C.D.C. scientists and was posted to the agency’s website despite their serious objections, according to several people familiar with the matter as well as internal documents obtained by The New York Times.

Similarly, a document, arguing for “the importance of reopening schools,” was also dropped into the C.D.C. website by the Department of Health and Human Services in July and is sharply out of step with the C.D.C.’s usual neutral and scientific tone, the officials said.

I've said this before, but I noticed early on as this happened that my search habits changed on Google. I used to search *for* .gov sites for accurate, unbiased info, and then I found myself *avoiding* .gov site for accurate, unbiased information.

That is a long term harm that will cost lives for years to come. I think of the old Warren Buffet saw, "A reputation takes twenty years to build and seconds to destroy."

Sandler Foundation - InfluenceWatch
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/sandler-foundation/


I rate Propublica as authoritative and left-of-center, about like The Guardian.

I rate Propublica as authoritative and left-of-center, about like The Guardian.

I would second that, but unlike the Guardian, no ads and no attempt to cover all the news. So I would say perhaps more left than the Guardian in terms of topics covered, but perhaps less left in the coverage of those topics (or maybe more accurately, less polemical and more traditional in their presentation). Winner of two Murrow Awards this year. https://www.rtdna.org/content/2020_national_edward_r_murrow_award_winners