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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

#361

Post by renewiltord »

bogomipz wrote: post #314

>"The CDC used the data for monitoring curfews, with the documents saying that SafeGraph’s data “has been critical for ongoing response efforts, such as hourly monitoring of activity in curfew zones or detailed counts of visits to participating pharmacies for vaccine monitoring.” The documents date from 2021." What business does the CDC have with Monitoring for local curfews? Wouldn't curfew monitoring be more the pu…

It’s a public health data decision. If people were not listening to local requests to stay home, that tells you that this is an ineffective policy.

If you tell people “don’t go to weddings” and people are still going to convention centers you know something is wrong with your method of intervention.

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

#362

Post by WaxedChewbacca »

brewdad wrote: post #292
loceng wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you're so certain, perhaps even arrogant even, that you're belief in "science" isn't a "religious" ideological relationship?

You're on a message board dedicated to tech and you don't believe in the scientific method? GTFO.

No post body was provided.

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

#363

Post by cavisne »

How do these companies onboard apps, they always seem super vague about that.

I understand the model, they provide a tracking sdk that app developers embed in their apps and get paid for. But I haven’t found any actual documentation on these sdk’s. Do they buy the apps themselves or reach out directly somehow?

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

#364

Post by travisporter »

redmen wrote: post #209

Our institutions are ancient, with overly specific missions. Like doctors, we have some for feet, for spine, for brain, but very few that integrate everything and see the big picture. When things get complicated these narrow-minded institutions will fail us.

They’re called general practitioners and they are the most common medical subspeciality

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

#365

Post by drekk »

niij wrote: post #327
standardUser wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CDC gave its pronouncements and state and local governments acted as they saw fit. They were a glorified informational pamphlet. They exercised virtually no real power whatsoever - that was mostly governors and mayors. I'm constantly bewildered when people try to paint a toothless bureaucracy as some sort of Orwellian ministry.

That _should_ be their role, but unfortunately they overstepped. The CDC implemented an eviction moratorium for around a year (September 4, 2020 through August 26, 2021). That had very real, negative impact on landlords during that time. I doubt those effected would call it toothless. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/04/2020-19...

Those landlords should get a real job in that case. They chose to treat housing like a speculative asset and it didn't go their way.

Makes zero sense to me that our pandemic response was about "keeping small businesses afloat" rather than keeping transmission low for a few weeks. I guess besides sacrificing grandma to the economy for $2 margaritas at Applebee's we should have evicted millions during winter so that landlords wouldn't be aversely affected by a pandemic. Weird how the eviction moratorium included aid for them as well, but I guess they were the real victims here and should have gotten more.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2021/01/25/nearly-20percent-of-rent...

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

#366

Post by drekk »

jtbayly wrote: post #293
Brybry wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, the national eviction moratorium was ruled illegal/not a power that the CDC has. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/21a23_ap6c.pdf

Precisely. The group that is willing to illegally order you to do things they have no right to order is also tracking you. But no biggie.

Say the thing they ordered. They didn't allow evicting millions of Americans during winter in a global pandemic. They're also tracking people to make sure lockdown guidelines were followed. Of course Americans could not follow a guideline to save their lives, and now over a million preventably dead Americans get to be summarily forgotten because the real victim was your ability to go to a bar or concert when hospitals were renting refrigerated trucks to hold bodies.

But no biggie.

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

#367

Post by drekk »

systemvoltage wrote: post #268
ethbr0 wrote: 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.

Kind of helps when your job is fighting fires and not preventing people from infecting their loved ones in the name of personal freedom.

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

#368

Post by briantakita »

drekk wrote: post #365
niij wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That _should_ be their role, but unfortunately they overstepped. The CDC implemented an eviction moratorium for around a year (September 4, 2020 through August 26, 2021). That had very real, negative impact on landlords during that time. I doubt those effected would call it toothless. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/04/2020-19...

Those landlords should get a real job in that case. They chose to treat housing like a speculative asset and it didn't go their way. Makes zero sense to me that our pandemic response was about "keeping small businesses afloat" rather than keeping transmission low for a few weeks. I guess besides sacrificing grandma to the economy for $2 margaritas at Applebee's we should have evicted millions during winter so that la…

Sounds like a great argument against the lockdowns, considering that the root of the problem was the lockdowns.

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

#369

Post by franga2000 »

niij wrote: post #327
standardUser wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CDC gave its pronouncements and state and local governments acted as they saw fit. They were a glorified informational pamphlet. They exercised virtually no real power whatsoever - that was mostly governors and mayors. I'm constantly bewildered when people try to paint a toothless bureaucracy as some sort of Orwellian ministry.

That _should_ be their role, but unfortunately they overstepped. The CDC implemented an eviction moratorium for around a year (September 4, 2020 through August 26, 2021). That had very real, negative impact on landlords during that time. I doubt those effected would call it toothless. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/09/04/2020-19...

The CDC's role should 100% _not_ be just about informing people. They and equivalent agencies around the world should have the power to take drastic measures in cases like a pandemic. That's their whole point. It's like saying traffic cops should only give warnings.

But also, semi-related: they implemented a policy to prevent people from becoming homeless during a global pandemic and it had a negative impact on the people who have been padding their bank accounts for decades by steadily increasing margins on a basic life necessity. Sorry if I don't feel bad.

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

#370

Post by somenameforme »

mike503 wrote: post #356
0xy wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you support them lying about mask effectiveness, destroying their credibility and leading to deaths? There's no question the CDC increased deaths by calling masks ineffective at the beginning of the pandemic. Their credibility never recovered, especially not when they are still flip flopping to this day (recommendations on masks oscillated by the week, often in response to public sentiment/political pressure -- n…

Documented reasoning behind that. Nobody said toilet paper was important and it became scarce. Imagine if they said masks were important. PPE would be impossible to get. Even worse than it already was. With stories like this coming to mind: https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/illinois-comptrollers-o...

In a democracy in particular, trust is the most important thing in society. Because actions are not guided by the truth, but by what people think the truth is. And when you lose trust, you lose the ability to influence people's perception of that. In a society where a group is perceived as partisan, they end up only being able to influence a fraction of society.

There was a poll [1] on this specific question (from May 2021 - so right in the middle of the pandemic), and as of then only 52% of Americans felt that the CDC was trustworthy. That factor alone is going to dramatically outweigh any sort of benefit of their lie. And of course it wasn't just the lie, but their general behavior which frequently came off as extremely disingenuous.

In anything even vaguely approaching the longrun, honesty always win. Because while lies may create more optimal outcomes in the extreme shortrun, the decline in trust it causes ultimately means we start getting to play out the fable of The Boy Who Cried Wolf on a societal level. And that's not pleasant.

[1] - https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/202...

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