COVID-19 # 49 (Required Parts Are Highlighted)

Google has banned employees from using Zoom, due to security risks. The NYC schools have banned it too, and shifted to Microsoft's Teams. And here's a computer security professor from Princeton: "Let's make this simple: Zoom is malware.". And now 27 (at last count) state's Attorney's General are investigating. I definitely do not want to discourage the whole social distancing approach, but education administrators have once again been caught flat-footed in their belief that online education solves problems.

Boris Johnson spent a third night in the ICU, but was checked out to a regular hospital bed this morning.

Something to keep in mind when looking at the numbers:

Questions to ask: why haven’t we heard anything from those tens of thousands “cured” #CCPVirus patients in China? They don’t talk to their friends on social media? They don’t know how to use WeChat? They don’t even know how to use internet at all? https://t.co/OkZiIOWht9

— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) April 9, 2020

Remember the videos from China 10 weeks ago that we weren't sure were real? There are videos coming out of Russia of people running away from chasers wearing hazmat suits.

New York City has started doing trench burials. They are a little more civilized than what was spotted on satellite images from Iran last month.

Anecdotally, people are saying online that the sounds of sirens in the streets of New York are not confirming a plateau of decline in cases.

The topic du jour in policy discussions is that SARS-CoV-2 appears to be hitting African-Americans harder. This is exactly the same issue that I raised with you in this post about whether they young get off easy. This could all be Simpson's Paradox. I am not saying with certainty that people are noting something that is unimportant. But I am noting that when you take multivariate cross-sectional data (like SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility) and attempt to explain it with a single variable, you are asking for inappropriate inferences.

Just for curiosity: the Wimbledon tennis tournament had an insurance policy that covered cancellation due to pandemics. It paid.

FWIW: Lloyds of London is famous for insuring just about anything, so I wonder if they did this policy. But Lloyds of London is not actually an insurance company, so those of you in finance might be interested in reading up on how it works.