27 MAY, 2020 - IN A WORD... DATA
IN A WORD... DATA
How gullible are you ?
How concerned are you ?
How knowledgeable are you ?
How up-to-date are you ?
How complacent are you ?
and the best questions of all ... How "liable" are you ... (for your silence., inaction and unawareness ?).
First... an update on the Harbor, nice weather 4 day week-end, although not as busy/active as "I" expected, it was still a 3/4 to full parking lot Friday-Saturday-Sunday (including the Maple St. lot), 30 people on the boardwalk pretty much full-time, no masks or distancing at all, but only 15 or so boats launched all weekend long !!! and Monday was absolutely empty !!! (THAT was the BIG surprise). even tho' the docks were still closed, I would say the peoples message of activity told me ..."it's over !".
................................................
LET'S TALK "DATA"
Here is the latest COVID19 Oregon graph (from yesterday):
Before you get too excited... today's "data" just came in... the next entry coming is 71 cases for today !
For most of my working career, I have sarcastically written about, called out-challenged (even mocked), the supposed Scientific and Medical professions as being clueless, untrained, and lacking in Scientific process (which includes their forensics, data acquisition, standardization, failures to vet input accuracy, and, dubious skewing of data to fit purpose)... "before" ever collecting, releasing or publishing data to the public (which would deem the data "credible" rather than "incredible").
My brain-space mockery, about what I see today in the media (presented as "data") is because "I" am a Data nut-case gatherer. Data is the sum of all accomplishment... data is the archive of knowledge, the "end", the "result", the "record", data drives the bus, data controls decisions, outcomes, and the future.
The destiny of any data project is reliant on data accuracy, data either guides or misleads mankind's progress through time, data integrity relies on many criteria.
When I poke fun at fancy-ass Engineers, Politicians, and Scientists (Data gatherers and Decision-makers), it is precisely because of what "I" know about data (and what "they" know about data), lofty "Titles" or exotic high-bred wall diplomas cannot validate bad data as fact.
Very sadly... more attention (in the Laboratory and in the field) is given to "prove" data in the machinery fields than in the Medical or Human-related areas of our world.
This COVID19 experience overlaps Medical, Corporate, Military, Governmental, Financial, and even Religious entities collectively...hence, they all must uniformity align ... as to what (and how) they gather, collect, sort, verify, comment, and understand the data they collect and release.
There is a responsibility or ethic to data that should not be taken lightly... data represents money especially quantitative data (statistics and percentages), data is very easy to "skew" to meet your needs, unfortunately, most data becomes re-written (or "can" be re-written) to specifically support any pre-intended outcome... "I need data to support this new grinder as being safer and more "green" than any other out there"... git' her done ! (a data facade). qualifications
Hence, I am giggling at the methodology, and qualifications of the people and criteria in this COVID19 medical expose', and that the information (see? I even refuse to call it data) is so easily believed by the masses.
The media can make boring data exciting, fresh, and oh-so influential... (fake News ? er, fake Data), in the media world, data can be turned into attention-getting, alarmist, pacifying, or even diversionary... (what do you want to accomplish today ? something negative ? or something positive) you can "buy" data to tailor fit your agenda needs... if 1/2 of the labs do not report in, does it matter ? if there is a typo ... decimal point or errant "0" somewhere does that matter ? can we refuse to print or broadcast conflicting data that is submitted ? or data that doesn't tell us what we want?
We very often learn about how history (war, investments, treaties, alliances, on and on) was altered by bad incoming data, ... data must be vetted, challenged, even "proved" before ever being used.
Unreliable Surveys, interviews, and opinions are invalid forever collecting accurate vetted data.
So where is this "data" coming from ? you must understand that there is no Federal standard for this, neither Washington or the CDC saw fit to establish a base program...a standard of procedure... they left it to the individual states. so, immediately... you cannot compare Wyoming data to Florida data and be even "close" to accurate.
All of the states are reporting on confirmed cases and deaths confirmed cases are determined through testing positive.
But, we had/have no-a few-not enough-test kits available, and many of those are not accurate, so, here is how this works... every County of every state has a Health Department who will report the state capital their data daily... that day will come to them from Hospitals, Doctors, Nurse Practitioners and Coroners who will report "confirmed cases" and deaths daily.
Without every County Hospital, Doctor and Nurse Practioner having access to testing kits, there is a lot of "guesswork"...
or there is no one dedicated (or paid) to bird-dog this county... if the state does not hear from 15 counties, that must be a zero... right? or, was someone off sick, on vacation, or laid off ? since there was no test given, that is a zero as well, but the scanner in remote Johnson county Hospital was malfunctioning and they had 20 cases (everyone that checked in those days had COVID19). but, we fixed it.
The coroner believes the doctor who without a test determined this was indeed COVID (IMHO), and, the hospital's Information officer that sends the figures off does not want to create a panic, so she lies daily.
I can draw up scenarios for the next ten paragraphs about, forgetfulness, drama, wrong diagnosis (both ways), lost figures, no figures, and agenda altered figures... this is NOT data.
Did I mention elections, investments, unions, ulterior motives or employment ? If a county or state wants more grant/loan $$... let's make our doctor out to be incompetent... if tourism will be scared away, if financial doom is imminent perhaps,s these figures become incorrect... who would know ? up -- down what kind of data do you need ?
Data Directions Done Dirt Cheap
CHINA is up for tomorrow.....