2skep

No mention of how many kids go to this school and how big is its catchment. I don't buy the:

"Lupiano eventually arrived at a single linking factor between himself, his wife and his sister: they each attended Colonia High School in Woodbridge in the 1990s"

In addition to the school, he and his sister share their parents genes. He and his wife lived in the same neighbourhood so they shared many other things too.

People on the flight were vaccinate OR tested negative. Not both. Don't yet know if the cases were in the tested negative group or in the vaccinated group.

Can I please ask you to consider the problems with the chart you have shared? The vertical axis is percent increase not actual increase. It is helpful to have that context before you load your argument on it.

What would you prefer?

A surgeon who expects a poor outcome of your surgery:

a)decides to not operate on you? b)decides to operate on you nonetheless?

I am in camp a

Actually, I never understood this. Is demand and supply matched and this is just the lag in the system (ie 6-8 weeks remains 6-8 weeks forever) or demand is greater than supply and this number will grow. If it is the former then there doesn't seem to be a cost advantage for the wait. A temporary increase in supply could bring this waiting time to zero with just the cost of 6-8 weeks worth of x-rays outsourced. And then you have a steady state system with zero waiting.

This thread is just endless collection of n=1 observations. This is how it goes =

- I eat meat and I am healthy

- No, I am vegetarian and I can run faster than you

- No, I eat meat but I also eat peas and I can read better than you.

You know what? Maybe all of you are right and maybe all of us don't need exactly the same food that is good your somebody else.

Geez!! :-)

I don't recognise that as Ockham's (Sic) razor reasoning. In fact it may be the exact opposite of that

I think as a non-US person, I think it may also be time to pay attention to executive powers in the US political system. It is one thing to have a system that will only rarely elect a nutjob but not having any safeguards once a nutjob is elected is too dangerous at a systems level.

I think the article is making a valid point and your response is not the classic opposition but a more thoughtful sounding version of the taboo. :-)

Study of a average 5% statistical difference of a population would considered a valid scientific endeavour in many places yet a lot of people would only raise this criticism when applied to study of gender/race differences.

Of the 7 that did, only 3 were re-elected. Maybe because they were unelectable in the first place :-)

As a result of majority voters voting in favour of Brexit and to recover the democratic deficit and negotiate UK's exit from the EU a new PM has been appointed who did not support Leave. She was selected by Westminster which is largely supportive of Remain

It would be very hard not to conclude that it is actually Westminster that is retarding democracy.

Enough has been said about bad treatment by border guards about every country on earth so don't need to repeat it but I had the following exchange with a Canadian visa officer.

Visa Officer:Your Name? How can I help you Me: Dr XYZ. I would like to apply for a visitor visa to Canada Visa Officer: Why would you like to go to Canada Me: I have been invited to speak at a conference Visa Officer: Hmm I see. Me: Is there a problem? Visa Officer: You see, you are not allowed to do public speaking on a visitor visa. You will have to apply a visa for public speaking which takes longer and requires additional formalities and checks. Me: Oh, I see. I am surprised that is the case, I go around the world to conferences and it seems unusual in Canada. Visa Officer: Can I ask you a question Me: Sure Visa Officer (with a smile): Would you say that your main purpose of applying the visa is to attend the conference and you will be sharing your professional and not political views. Me: Yes. Absolutely! Visa Officer: You should then get a visitor visa which will be ready tomorrow after 4. Remember, when asked say that you are attending the conference. Enjoy Canada

This article is a very good example of the genre of science reporting I find very uninteresting and even boring. The way the writer builds up to the punch line by weaving in his own life and by overemphasiaing the trope of the 'maverick scientist challenging group think' is so contrived that it probably wrote itself.

Maybe I am different that I want to read science articles to learn new things and not to be entertained. The writer proves how hard it is to do both.

You may have misunderstood. I was not trying to explain the $5000 gap. Administrative costs is one example of the cost difference. Research shows that 'socialised' health systms spend up to $ 800-900 less per patient per year on admin. (I think it was diff between USA and Canada) I am not sure of other systems but in NHS England there is no tracking of actual number of patients seen in primary care and details of each patient's complaint. The last audit done on that was over 5 years ago which was also based on data sampling and no such audit is currently planned. There are other reasons for high cost - one of the is the list pricing of actual products used (socialised systems pay less for products, UK pays about 20% less for pharmaceutical products than many other industrial nations). UK consultants and surgeons are not paid for how many procedures they do, 'coincidentally' UK surgeons operate less frequently. I am sure there are several other reasons that explain the $5000 gap but these are just a few.