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CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

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Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do, they choose not to. That they cannot by some law is a myth. Obama even called them out on it. Obama also had them author a massive study on all aspects of gun violence, but the results went quite against what the Dems wanted to claim, so it got pretty quiet again. What happened is they did publish some studies, and one was quite bad (to this day the author will not release the dataset, for example), but was…

Which study was the one that made everything quiet? Which one was the bad one? Other than that, I'm not sure why you're being downvoted without replies. Here are the recent CDC funded gun studies. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/funded-resea ...

A 1993 Kellerman article claiming guns in the home increased homicides. From what I recall, he would not release his dataset to other researchers, and many other researchers couldnt replicate his work.

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#272
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So any organization which impinges on liberty shouldn't exist? The IRS, fire departments, police departments?

The problem is that the CDC has squandered trust. If my local fire department behaves in a way that manifests immense mistrust in the neighborhood, sure as hell I wouldn't want them to exist. Fortunately, around the country, fire department people are the nicest, kindest, inspiring leaders.

Not all of them: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39516346

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CDC are the least scary people buying this data Most buyers probably just want to target advertising at me, or otherwise grab my attention. The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions. And they seem to think they can have unchecked power by invoking "science". Can someone name a scarrier entity that could be tracking you? I don't…

> The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions. Their charter is disease control . How you 'live your life' is orthogonal to that mission - they're responsible for stopping you from infecting other people with communicable diseases. That is also your own responsibility , and just because responsibilities aren't always things you wan…

Ah yes, the CDC.

They've been saying "Spanish Flu - give us money" for years and we find out that they didn't bother to research how any of the flus are transmitted.

It's not like flus haven't been killing 35-75k Americans every year for as long as anyone has counted.

Speaking of the Spanish Flu, Fauci's PhD was on how improvised masks made it worse...

Also, one of the big Spanish Flu outbreaks was "credited" to a parade, aka "a bunch of people walking down the street together." What did the CDC say about such events? (Hint: it praised them if they were BLM.)

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#274
post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So any organization which impinges on liberty shouldn't exist? The IRS, fire departments, police departments?

The problem is that the CDC has squandered trust. If my local fire department behaves in a way that manifests immense mistrust in the neighborhood, sure as hell I wouldn't want them to exist. Fortunately, around the country, fire department people are the nicest, kindest, inspiring leaders.

If your local fire department made masks mandates part of the fire safety code they'd be just as hated in that neighborhood. No matter how nice, kind and inspiring the people who work there are.

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's definitely not orthogonal to how you live your life; their very purpose is to limit how you live your life in order to prevent/reduce behaviors that spread disease. For example, they issue quarantine orders.[1] People understand that is their mission. Some find it scary. Everyone has a different threshold at which they start to object to the CDC overriding people's freedom in the pursuit of disease control, but…

> their very purpose is to limit how you live your life Their purpose is to increase the overall duration of healthy life we have, both individually and in aggregate. Limiting how you live your life is, again, orthogonal to that. For example, how is their campaign to control mosquitos and eradicate malaria in the US limiting how you live your life?

The goal of public health is to increase overall health, yes, but that goal can easily conflict with individual freedoms. For example, smoking bans:

> Supporters argue by presenting evidence that smoking is one of the major killers, and that therefore governments have a duty to reduce the death rate, both through limiting passive (second-hand) smoking and by providing fewer opportunities for people to smoke. Opponents say that this undermines individual freedom and personal responsibility, and worry that the state may be encouraged to remove more and more choice in the name of better population health overall.

The main thing that public health agencies do is promote healthy behaviors, like, for example, washing your hands. You could say that their primary goal is convincing you to “live your life” in a healthy way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_health

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which study was the one that made everything quiet? Which one was the bad one? Other than that, I'm not sure why you're being downvoted without replies. Here are the recent CDC funded gun studies. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/funded-resea ...

A 1993 Kellerman article claiming guns in the home increased homicides. From what I recall, he would not release his dataset to other researchers, and many other researchers couldnt replicate his work.

Indeed.

Kellerman’s methodology that he published among swaths of missing data included ~250 phone surveys where someone was shot in their own home and a police report was filed (nothing verified, no concern to who owned the gun or who was shot). This was FAR more representative of drug use and domestic violence than a typical gun owner - yet - it was used as a primary factor to the push assault weapon ban and Brady Bill in 94. This then directly led to the Republican blowout of 96 and likely costing Al Gore the presidency in 2000 according to Bill Clinton. Kellermann is an absolute hack who still enjoys appearances on NPR, ABC, etc as a gun violence expert.

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions The CDC primarily exists to address collective risk with collective decisions in the face of public health and especially infectious disease events where the dynamics are inevitably collective. Sometimes collective decisions curb individual freedom -- like curbs literally do, along with…

I’m not sure the CDC should be making collective decisions. The CDC was originally envisioned as a center of excellence providing specific operational support and services to states. There’s been a lot of scope creep.

Debate about which level of government certain classes of public health decisions should be made it is respectable.

Although we've have had a chance to see some of the issues with mismatched state-level responses. Infectious agents don't seem to care much about any border their hosts can cross.

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#278

See the issue here is that this data exists at all and it’s purchasable by any group. I feel like the CDC are the least scary people buying this data. And from the looks of it they used it for medical research, which if similar in style to other medical research is bound by boards and ethics committees. What we aren’t writing about in this article are the groups using this data Cambridge Analytica style to sway polit…

> CDC are the least scary people buying this data Most buyers probably just want to target advertising at me, or otherwise grab my attention. The CDC wants a say in how people live their lives and thinks they know better than individuals about risk tolerance and decisions. And they seem to think they can have unchecked power by invoking "science". Can someone name a scarrier entity that could be tracking you? I don't…

insurance companies which is the other worst thing that comes to mind have limited purview in what they might be interested in

"Sir, we've dropped your health insurance policy because we've noticed from your location history that you frequent fast food restaurants, which is defined in your health insurance policy as a 'prohibited unhealthy lifestyle'."

"Sir, we've determined from your location history that you average 5 mph over the speed limit, so we're reclasifying you as a 'high risk' driver and increasing your premiums"

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#279
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't even have the power to study gun violence.

Probably because gun violence isn't a disease, and there's already several agencies under the DoJ for that.

The CDC isn't limited to studying disease. That was their original mission, but Congress expanded it to include a variety of health related issues, including environmental effects, dangers associated with jobsites, etc. it also is mandated to collect statistics that impact public health.

Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders

#280
post #211
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How you 'live your life' is orthogonal to that mission orthogonal does not mean what you think it means given your usage. orthogonal means its entirely unrelated. but the fact is disease control and being able to make personal choices w/ respect to living your life can be in direct conflict means its not orthogonal. apologies for this correction orthogonal is just one of my favorite words. =)

It was used correctly, you've just mistaken the point made about the CDC and how they view their mission

no, its not used correctly. If i've misunderstood the point being communicated its because the original comment isn't using words correctly. ;)
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