
Seemingly Popular Covid-19 Model Is Obvious Nonsense - kilotaras
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/QuzAwSTND6N4k7yNj/seemingly-popular-covid-19-model-is-obvious-nonsense
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zelienople
I wonder if people are aware how turgid and impenetrable is their prose.

Does the person who wrote this understand that they are incapable of
communicating effectively? Do they do it anyway to prove some kind of point
that is tangential to the main one? Is there some sort of secondary gain
involved in being unclear?

In short, is the author getting some sort of self-aggrandizement out of
explaining things poorly, or are they just incompetent?

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mtVessel
Unaware, is my bet. The vast majority of technical writing, both online and in
print, is either dumbed down beyond utility, or utterly incomprehensible.
Communication is a specific skill, and vanishingly few have expertise in a
given field, and the ability to promote those ideas.

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m0llusk
> Whereas the New York City subways continue to run, and California thinks
> weed sales are an essential business.

If the model is no good then it might make sense to come up with alternative
models and compare predictions. Instead of doing so this piece is mostly snark
that is at least as unrealistic as the assumptions the model being criticized.

Shutting down the NYC subway system would likely cause serious problems for
essential workers who still need to get around. Cannabis users in California
include people who experience seizures without it and the result of shutting
down the legal trade would without doubt be a resurgence of the illegal trade
which has many downsides not least of which being likely increased spread of
CoV2.

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sesuximo
Isn’t this intentionally to model the first wave?

