Harry Shannon
Data just released show that “Black people and other people of colour make up 83 per cent of reported COVID-19 cases while only making up half of Toronto's population.”
Quick now – how many times more likely are these racialized people to get COVID-19 than the rest of the Toronto population, i.e., white people? 1 ½ ti…
Category: numbers
Which do you trust: The numbers or your impressions?
Harry Shannon
I'm a big fan of football/soccer (your choice about what to call it). In particular, Manchester United of the English Premier League. I have supported them ever since I was about six or seven years old, when Gordon, the boy next door who was a year older and therefore knew everything, told me they were the team to go for.
So wh…
Are you a swinger?
Harry Shannon
I was listening to CBC radio this morning. A reporter was talking about the popularity of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and said that a year ago Ford’s approval rating was -49% [if I remember correctly]. Today, his rating is +39%. The reporter continued, saying that this represented an 88% swing.
This, of course, is wrong. To un…
Models and COVID-19
Harry Shannon
We all want to know how the pandemic will play out. Sorry, I don’t.
But some groups are doing mathematical modelling to try to predict what will happen. The statistician George Box famously noted that all models are wrong but some are useful. His point was that a model is an attempt to describe some aspect of the world in mat…
“We’re Number One” – Trump
Harry Shannon
As the number of deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. climbed above the total in Italy to become the highest in the world, Donald Trump claimed: ‘Thanks to me, we’re number one.’
In a rambling press conference, Trump said: ‘Several other countries have tried to beat us, but they haven’t succeeded. Countries like Ita…
A post on, you guessed it, coronavirus and COVID-19
Harry Shannon
Some thoughts on the coronavirus and its impact.
I am not paying attention any more to the number of new confirmed cases. That’s because, as far as I can tell, whether someone is tested is rather arbitrary: has the person sought care; does the person have symptoms; how severe are the symptoms; are there enough testing kits; h…
How Breitbart creates fake news on coronavirus – though maybe unintentionally
Harry Shannon
You have no doubt heard of the far-right web site
Breitbart. It makes Fox News look timid
and centrist. As for accuracy … um,
consider this.
On March 17, 2020, they published a story about coronavirus. Well, they published a lot of stories on the topic, but one headline caught my eye.
It read: ‘Study: 86 pe…
Try living on the minimum wage – my letter in the Hamilton Spectator
Harry Shannon
Background: A story in the paper on March 3 reported that Hamilton (Ontario) city council turned down a proposal to pay various workers a living wage. The vote was 14-4 against.
My letter was just one of three in today's (March 7) paper criticizing the decision. There was a fourth letter on the topic. It began: 'A living wa…
The value of public transit
Harry Shannon
Some years ago, even before traffic was as bad as it is today, I had to get into Toronto from the Hamilton area. There was a problem on the GO (commuter) train line, so I drove. But so did many of the people who normally took the train.Stuck in traffic, I did some simple mental arithmetic. At the time, there were three …
Data on Pit Bulls
Harry Shannon
Another letter to the Toronto Star which wasn't published. But they did print others that made the same point, and more.
Background: a few years ago, the Ontario's Liberal government enacted a ban on pit bulls. There's now a Conservative government, and one of their MPPs (MPP = Member of Provincial Parliament) has introduced …