Simple but wrong or complex but right. The chattering class always prefer the former over the latter.

This cartoon is a powerful descriptor of a disproportionate number of situations when it comes to public policy.

Click to enlarge.

I just saw someone repurpose it to "The state of Covid-19 science."

Exactly right. I have been harping since the beginning about the poor quality of our data. Several months into this pandemic and the quality of data (and data reporting) is little improved. Not only is data collection and analysis highly variant but the core issue of definitions remains unaddressed.

Likewise, our science is highly compromised. Tons of really sloppy, and notably unreliable, research ends up in the mainstream media maw. Other information seems to be being actively suppressed.

Within the US, mainstream media and academia, primarily because of partisan obsessions, have turned against hydroxychloroquine with zinc as a treatment despite continuing, and increasingly robust research indicating its effectiveness. This is one of the larger disconnects. Many countries are using hydroxychloroquine with zinc as a primary treatment strategy and yet the Mandarin Class position in the US is that it is ineffective. Perhaps that is true.

But the fact that technology social media platforms are now suppressing research which supports hydroxychloroquine with zinc makes me pause. Why is the very evidence that it is effective such a threat?

And why are the mainstream media trumpeting the various vaccines? Yes, we all want one. But we know the history of such crash treatment programs. Occasionally there is a wonder drug. Usually it is a long trail of years of failed efforts and disappointments.

Sometimes it almost seems as if there are certain national interests in preventing cheap effective solutions.

What we usefully know has not changed much - hygiene, hand-washing, social distancing, isolation when infected, protect the elderly, the end stage of life individuals, and those with morbidities such as obesity, blood pressure, cardiac weakness, etc. Pretty basic stuff we had discovered early on.

The debate whether lockdowns "work" continues to rage but with increasing evidence that they are less effective than anticipated. The debate about school reopenings continues to rage. The debate about herd immunity rages. The debate about second waves rage. The debate about acquired immunity rages. The debate about the significance of two strands of Covid 19 (Chinese and European) and their relative lethality rages, the mystery of geographic timing of infections is unexplained, the wildly variant death rates based on locations remains debated, there is no credible estimation about timeframe for a vaccine.

Basically, our current news and talking heads continue to fixate on discussions that are at best simple but wrong and very few are discussing the really interesting issues which are complex but right.