I've worked with the Safegraph data mentioned in the article. They draw a polygon around a set of geographic coordinates and tell you how many iPhones vs Androids we're in that polygon in a week and they associate that polygon+address with a named business. Yes, that polygon could be a doctor's office as the article raises but so what? There is nothing tying it to you/me/any person. It's a location-popularity index basically. I have a hard time coming up with a scenario where this is a threat to my liberty. The article especially at the end conflates tracking of persons with tracking of popularity, and is (imho) disappointingly fear-mongering.
CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
381–390 of 442 posts
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#382Earlier quoted context omitted.
Quoted post unavailable.
> along with the Milgram experiment that people should lookup Don't bother, the experiment was so unethical it cannot be replicated properly. Furthermore, the way it was presented to the public was deceptive; only some of the results were widely reported and some of those suppressed results draw into question the popular narrative of the experiments outcomes. For instance, it is popularly claimed in undergrad psych c…
As an aside, i recommend the book "Ordinary Men". It tells the story of middle aged reserve policemen that weren't indoctrinated Nazis ( and a non insignificant part of them were communist-sympathising dock workers pre-war) and their trail of atrocities in Poland. It makes a decent case that there's more to it than "was just a Nazi", even if really isn't "just followed authority blindly".
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#383Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems to be theoretical. Are there any examples of eradicating a zoonotic disease that caused a pandemic (without it going away naturally)?
The first SARS didn't hit pandemic volume, but the outbreak is considered eradicated. It's got a more favorable symptom profile - unlike SARS-CoV-2, infectious people pretty much always have a detectable fever.
That's the thing though. Things like SARS and MERS still exist in the animal reservoirs and could come back at any time. It never hit pandemic or even endemic levels. It's easy to eradicate something in a small geographic area with a small group if people. And you're right, the severity made it much harder for infections to be missed (I think it was less contagious too).
I was just saying that now something has hit pandemic level, it's unlikely we can make it go away. If we're lucky it will end up like the Spanish flu - people build immunity to the current strain during a few years and it mutates to something less severe.
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#384Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Can someone name a scarrier (sp) entity that could be tracking you? ... The Mafia? Any other criminal or terrorist organization or individual? The police operating under an incorrect warrant? A creepy ex? Unless you buy into conspiracies, the CDC is at worst going to do what it thinks is best for you, and is constrained by constitutional checks and balances.
> the CDC is at worst going to do what it thinks is best for you I don't want to get involved with what the CDC is doing here (because they're probably not doing anything too nefarious), but I would like to pull this point out. The intentions of an institution (or at least surface level justifications) are kind of unrelated to the point. What an institution thinks is best for someone and what that individual thinks i…
Intentions and outcomes can certainly be different, but I think intentions provide a higher floor for the downside risk.
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#385Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 p…
and it had a negative impact on the people who have been padding their bank accounts for decades This is just plain wrong. * you are painting every landlord with the same brush * you beleive the fabric of our society should treat people differently, predicated upon the above point * you think it is OK to suspend checks on government power, if you happen to dislike a category of people it effects From your attitude, I…
All your examples are not rent-seeking business. People justifiably, in my opinion, look down at that business as it is a zero sum game where people with access to credit bid up access to a fundamental human need.
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#386Earlier 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...
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 p…
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Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#387Our 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
Clever, reddit-type response. Hilarious.
And yet general practitioners don't know anything about muscles, nutrition or how the pieces fit together.
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#388Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you're so certain, perhaps even arrogant even, that you're belief in "science" isn't a "religious" ideological relationship?
The word "belief" gets mangled intentionally in the case above. "Belief" as in "understand" versus "hold to be true regardless or questioning" are very different things. I'm humble enough to know that I don't know everything and can be wrong. And if I'm wrong I'm willing to learn anew. For example, I was raised on the concept that dietary fat was bad (margarine was healthier than butter) and we now know this is not t…
You're so close to seeing the deeper complexity.
> For example, I was raised on the concept that dietary fat was bad (margarine was healthier than butter) and we now know this is not the case.
Do you know who perpetuated that lie, that dietary fat was bad? Instead of waiting for you to guess, I'll tell you: it was a for-profit industrial complex who wanted to make money.
The pharmaceutical industry is also a for-profit industry, so now that you realize you were tricked about dietary fat - do you presume that the pharmaceutical industry wouldn't do the same?
You have really interesting deflection tactics, I must say, and the put-down attempts are quite subtle compared to most people.
And you're not honest about how a person learns information: you claim you can only work with basic knowledge of the immune system, putting forward that again as a strawman - an argument I never made for you to needd to counter - probably because you weren't able to actually argue against any points I actually made, so you needed the strawman as filler to make it look like you could defend your position.
Here, watch these videos, and then we can actually focus on argument points you disagree with - you'll have to find evidence/sources to refute the specifics to what these highly credentialed and experienced doctors and experts say though, and not just smear campaign articles on them:
Here's a 38 minute summary video of a longer 5+ hour video of testimony of experts: https://rumble.com/vtamrn-covid-19-a-second-opinion-shorter-...
Here's the full 5+ hour video of testimony: https://rumble.com/vt62y6-covid-19-a-second-opinion.html - "COVID-19: A Second Opinion" (discussion from experts begins around 40 minute mark)
I'm curious too, are you familiar with Noam Chomsky's Manufactured Consent book - more so the mechanisms of how you can manipulate a population to being okay with the government taking certain actions?
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#389The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Its disturbing how many people on HN are okay with this.
Re: CDC tracked millions of phones to see if Americans followed lockdown orders
#390Earlier quoted context omitted.
The CDC unilaterally ruled this country for the better part of 2 years. No checks. No balances. Now you could argue that the desperation of the situation calls for something more expedient than Democracy. But many people who supported the moves made by the CDC (including me) were equally horrified that it had as much power to do so.
Sometimes I wonder whether some Americans actually know what governments do or what they're capable of doing. I'm not even sure they're aware of what they expect governments to be able to do. I always see these emotional reactions over something that is the whole point of having a government and its associated institutions and it's like... I didn't know you were an anarchist. I'd say the worst thing about the past tw…
Your brain ends up completely fucked if your only source of information is opinion "news".