Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

The willow is too close to the house.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Consistently wrong since 2002

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

In my day, never was longer.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Competent governance again

Competent governance again

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The COVID Tracking Project is a volunteer effort to collect the best available data on what the hell is happening in terms of tests, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths every day.  They have been running non-stop for almost a year now.  They are the best publicly available data in the United States.

They are ending their efforts next month:

 

It is not because the pandemic is over.

It is because they can trust that the Federal Government can and will be a reliable counter of critical things and also a reliable distributor of the data that they have assembled.

Counting is critical. It is a baseline competency to identify where things are good and where things are bad. It is a baseline skill to identify where things are getting better now and where things are getting worse now. It is a baseline function. And the federal government should have both deep expertise in counting things, the skilled staff to do so, the relationships with the relevant non-national governmental units and the cash to surge resources into counting things on a daily basis when there is a pressing need to do so.

The COVID Tracking Project on its own is a massive success.

The COVID Tracking Project as the most reliable source of near-ish real time data is a stunning indictment of our society. A bunch of volunteers performing a key, essential and basic function for over a year into a national emergency because the government was unwilling to do so is stunning.

Now we’re just getting back to plausibly competent governance again.

Reader Interactions

17Comments

  1. 1.

    Mike in NC

    Yes, I don’t expect President Joe Biden to tease reporters with fake stories about big burly men with tears in their eyes who call him “Sir”.

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    An old Alka-Seltzer jingle keeps going through my brain:

    Plop plop, fizz fizz,
    Oh, what a relief it is!

    Such a relief to have basic competency back at the levers of government!

    And I hope Anne Laurie links to this post tomorrow morning in her daily roundup of Covid news, for the benefit of readers who keep a different set of hours.

  5. 5.

    japa21

    Which reminds me. Has the Biden administration started changing the reporting back to the CDC, or is that private firm still handling that?

  6. 6.

    TS (the original)

    I read the link in the tweet. Shame they didn’t write the obvious reason – We now have a government able to do its job without political interference.

    Also this paragraph

    By bringing increased scrutiny to federal sources as part of the final phase of our work, we think we can also encourage public health agencies to publish more comprehensive COVID-19 data. And that has always been our goal: to be a force for reality by assembling data that better reflects how many people are getting tested and how many are sick, hospitalized, and dying.

    This was always going to happen with a Biden administration – it doesn’t need any increased scrutiny – federal sources are once again doing their job.

    They’ve done a great job, but on completion should be explaining exactly why they are no longer needed.

  7. 7.

    Ken

    @japa21: I’m also expecting to see revisions – upward – to last year’s published figures, once the administration gets the original data.

  8. 8.

    Kristine

    It feels so good to enjoy isn’t the right word but oh well government and related updates again.

  9. 9.

    planetjanet

    I am ambivalent about this development. Certainly it is a sign of confidence in good government.  But have their numbers been lining up with the government’s after only a couple of weeks?  Surely it will take more time to get the bugs out of the system.

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @planetjanet: They announced a date that is basically a month from now.  That seems like time to get the official new one up and running and some time to run them in parallel.

    The new kids on the block care enough about competence that if they have any concerns, they could ask these guys to run theirs for a little bit longer.

  11. 11.

    TS (the original)

    @planetjanet:

    Surely it will take more time to get the bugs out of the system.

    They are going to continue until March – from the link

    On March 7, the one-year anniversary of our founding, we will release our final daily update and our data compilation will stop.

    They also mentioned a couple of positive items that were happening in December – presumably under the trump administration.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    It is because they can trust that the Federal Government can and will be a reliable counter of critical things and also a reliable distributor of the data that they have assembled.

    Ok, I am a died in the wool DEM. But DEMs aren’t perfect, I know because I have been lied to by DEMs. Steve Stenger is in prison for his lies. Personally, I think it is just as important for us to hold DEMs to account as GOPs.

    OK, I lied. It is even more important.

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    Hey Ohio folks, might want to check into PR firms your governor may have an ownership stake in, or perhaps are owned by supporters and friends. He wants to “stimulate” them.

    “Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Monday that he wants to spend $50 million on a marketing campaign to convince East Coast and West Coast residents to live, work and spend their money in Ohio,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reports.

    Said DeWine: “We want to position Ohio as the place to be. Ohio is a welcoming place. I don’t care who you are, we want you to come to Ohio. It’s a progressive state.”

    “Well, not exactly. Ohio’s GOP-controlled Legislature hasn’t passed many progressive policies in years.”

    Narrator: “This will not work.”

  16. 16.

    artem1s

    these folk remind me of the early days of the Traitor’s administration when so many agencies and academic institutions scrambled to back up and protect their data.  It’s nice to know that spirit wasn’t diminished by 4 years of terrorism against the truth. Joe should give these folks a medal of honor.  they should get nominated for a Nobel Prize. they certainly deserve it more than Rush Limbaugh.

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