The CECC went to great lengths to promote themselves as miracle-working technocrats, effortlessly bending nature to their whim via the magic of yellow tape and plastic barriers, and probably started believing their own BS. A compliant, fearmongering media acted as kingmakers, and our representatives and lawmakers went along with it all (most likely because they knew the CECC would take the heat when it all blew up - evading blame is a national pastime). Anyone raising objections was constrained by emergency powers and censorship (same as everywhere else, of course).
As for why people are ignoring deadly serious global and national issues and focusing instead on a largely-unimportant virus, thereâs a whole thread about that (which nobody reads):
Yeah, why worry about the shit in Ukraine exploding into WW3, when you have to worry about Elan buying Twitter, Johnny and Amber truly physically slinging shit at each other, all kinds of HxNy bird flu coming from chickens in the U.S., lockdowns in that big city across the pond, etc.
Even now many Taiwanese believe that covid will just go away eventually, so in their mind if they just held onto covid zero a bit longer theyâd get off scott free.
Youâre having a laugh if you think people routinely get âconvictedâ for academic/scientific fraud. It happens fairly regularly, and generally speaking nothing happens.
In a few very high profile cases some papers may eventually get retracted or someone might lose their job, but thatâs the exception not the norm.
A California jury found Holmes, 37, on four of 11 charges, including three counts of fraud and one count of conspiring to defraud private investors in the blood-testing startup. She remains free on a $500,000 bond while awaiting sentencing.
Well done - you found one of the very rare high-profile exceptions I mentioned. And she was prosecuted for defrauding money from people, not for scientific fraud or dishonesty. Itâs no surprise to anyone that this attracts legal attention.
Online class for me today, because almost all todayâs students wrote a test in the same room as a positive case last week.
At least the school is letting me run class from home, and not making me go and run an online class in the school classroom.
Fortunately itâs a small class. The plan for today is midterm exam review. Scanning the exams for fifteen students and sending them out isnât too much trouble. Doing so for a seventy-student class would be different.
The indictment alleges that Holmes and Balwani defrauded doctors and patients by making false claims concerning Theranosâs ability to provide accurate, fast, reliable, and cheap blood tests and test results, and by omitting information concerning the limits of and problems with Theranosâs technologies. The defendants knew Theranos was not capable of consistently producing accurate and reliable results for certain blood tests, including the tests for calcium, chloride, potassium, bicarbonate, HIV, Hba1C, hCG, and sodium. The defendants nevertheless used interstate electronic wires to purchase advertisements intended to induce individuals to purchase Theranos blood tests at Walgreens stores in California and Arizona. Through these advertisements, the defendants explicitly represented to individuals that Theranosâs blood tests were cheaper than blood tests from conventional laboratories to induce individuals to purchase Theranosâs blood tests.
You might want to read to the end of your link to see what she was convicted of. (Spoiler - it wasnât lying about science, it was defrauding investors.)
Note also how long it took for this to come to light and be prosecuted - over 15 years. And again, this is one of the very rare exceptions - people arenât routinely being convicted for scientific fraud/dishonesty.
She was convicted of defrauding investors using false claims about the efficacy of her blood analyzer.
The indictment alleges that the defendants used a combination of direct communications, marketing materials, statements to the media, financial statements, models, and other information to defraud potential investors. Specifically, the defendants claimed that Theranos developed a revolutionary and proprietary analyzer that the defendants referred to by various names, including as the TSPU, Edison, or minilab. The defendants claimed the analyzer was able to perform a full range of clinical tests using small blood samples drawn from a finger stick. The defendants also represented that the analyzer could produce results that were more accurate and reliable than those yielded by conventional methods â all at a faster speed than previously possible. The indictment further alleges that Holmes and Balwani knew that many of their representations about the analyzer were false. For example, it is alleged that Holmes and Balwani knew that the analyzer had accuracy and reliability problems, performed a limited number of tests, was slower than some competing devices, and, in some respects, could not compete with existing, more conventional machines.
My HS daughter is at home now attending online classes. Someone in her class had covid symptoms so the class was sent home on Friday. The results came out on Sunday and they were positive. According to my daughterâs teacher, Sunday would be considered day 1 of the 3+4 scheme. Also according to the teacher, everyone had to take a home test and send a picture to the teacher on this supposed day 1.
Everything is so screwed up with the teacherâs understanding of the rules (not to mention her logic), I donât even know where to start. I told my daughter to show her teacher the rules of 3+4 but she didnât want to be the only one rebelling so she is complying with everything. I told her she can leave the house starting tomorrow (Tuesday). I believe the process is another home test before she heads out the door. The test she took on the supposed day 1 was unnecessary, of course.
