Since you will ask if I have, the answer is yes.

The definition of propaganda is pretty broad, but you seem seem to use the term in the sense of spreading disinformation, or more plainly, lies, for political purposes. What disinformation do you see in the paper? Be specific.

The Bayesian Statistics applied in the paper are mainstream in the field of epidemiology. The paper was subjected to peer review. Are all the professionals wrong? What are your professional qualifications? You don't seem have any.

If there is any propagandist in this little drama, it is you! Time for you to S.T.F.U.

Mass viral testing is NEVER a good idea.

Testing needs to be strategic and part of a larger package of public health measures (isolating cases, tracing all close contacts and quarantining those contacts and supporting them through their quarantine) if it is going to be effective.

My point, and the point of the paper I cited, is:

At this stage in the epidemic, mass testing for infection doesn't buy much benefit compared to mass vaccination.

Inappropriate mass viral testing poses significant social, educational and economic risks to individuals that are not currently outweighed by trivial benefits to the population at large.

A fully vaccinated individual is very unlikely to suffer death or hospitalization from COVID. A fully vaccinated individual is also very unlikely to infect an unvaccinated person..at home, school or the workplace. Determining who is at low risk is simple: just ask for their vaccination card (and make a phone call to determine if the card is valid or bogus).

In contrast, testing individuals for COVID infection at work, school etc. is very inefficient. The tests are often wrong... especially in younger populations. Even if the test does correctly identify a COVID carrier, the virus has likely spread to others by the time you send the individual home. On the other hand, if the flagged individual is a false positive, this will become apparent in a short period of time. The flagged individual will be mad as hell about the mistake and let everybody know about it. The local news will only be too happy to spread the story. We don't need more gasoline on the existing social fire.

Yes, direct testing for the virus can be useful in some circumstances...but mostly as early warning at the population level. We are well past the early warning phase of the epidemic. Late warning is at best pointless, at worst it is highly divisive.

Harris - you constantly spout slogans you can't back up. When you try, you look foolish. Check out your converts to post ratio. Sad.

"Not rocket science. Simple math."

There is nothing simple about the math.

see the paper "Error rates in SARS-CoV-2 testing examined with Bayes' theorem", reference below:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8080131/

The takeaway from this paper directly refutes your bright idea:

"The analysis suggests that many of the people with mild symptoms and positive test results are unlikely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 in some regions. It is concluded that current and foreseen alternative tests can not be used to “clear” people as being non-infected."

They ran small donor and big donor campaigns.

No, they just ran campaigns.

Most of your Nader reply is rationalizing why Bernie did not run a small donor campaign followed by your standard OD boiler plate. These are two heavy weights in the political game, one an Emeritus Professor of Law who probably knows more about this subject in his pinky finger than your entire existence and you are wrongly telling them how it is. Interesting strategy. Lucky for you, the reading of your comment was probably left to staff...

Their point seems to be that small donations are not a particularly useful strategy as the Trump republicans are quite good with them as well.

I would think for the gerrymandering angle you would have to demonstrate that as the the ratio of small donations increases, there is a less chance of wanting to tilt the advantage to their party. A tall order as one of the surprising politicians that are good with small donations is Gaetz who IMO is not known for non self serving thinking.

And yes, I understand you are obsessed with small donor as the only solution. I think the rest of the world would prefer some proof that it would work before jumping on your bandwagon...

Play ball or go away.

Before you 'cuse me,
Take a look at yourself.

Back up your accusations! The word salad defense fools no one but yourself.

You wrote in the Nader comments:

Neither Trump or Bernie ran small donor campaigns. Both got more total money from big donors.

According to government data, at least for Bernie, that is wrong for both 2016 and 2020. Can you back up your accusation? Do you have proof the government data is in error? Time to put up or shut up, your bluff has been called...

It's just an innocent youtube video totally on subject, but painfully so...

Are you sure you want to boldly go where no man was meant to go?

Day-yam. You nailed it.

I have an idea ...

... for a theme(s) at our Sunday Night Music Festival and Dance Party!

Captain Kirk returns to space as William Shatner boldly goes where few others have.

His Blue Origin space travel mission was a great success as he returned safely back to Mother Earth.

Not bad for a ninety year old, eh?

So, how about we highlight our favourite space songs this Sunday night?

And, Rolling Stone released an updated list of the 500 Best Songs of All Time last month - so, lets also play our favourites from this list Sunday night!

I know that we Weigantians are quite capable of doing both - can't wait for Sunday night!

The Monty Python references are somewhat appropriate as Don is the rhetorical equivalent of the Black Knight...

Do you even read these comments through before you fail to address what's in them?

Are you too lazy to actually rebut anyone else's arguments? Or simply unwilling to try?

Do you live in a world where calling names works to convince people and demonstrates your superior intellect?

Tell ya what, you keep on pretending that who you are and what you're doing is making OD a game changing difference.

Signed --

Brave Sir Robin

Great. Now I have the Monty Python "Sir Brave Robin" tune stuck in my head.

I think the holidays will prove far worse than you expect because international travelers are more of the mix and its only folks in the developed world that have any kind of vax-or-otherwise-gained herd immunity. It will be worse in Trump country, and Covid is going to keep rattling around our country and across the world and back a for the rest of our lives.

It's not pleasant, especially if you have a strong gag reflex, but it's all simple enough. People who really can't do the back of their throat can swab both nostrils instead, which is also done for younger children. My younger daughter and son-in-law, both professional musicians, sometimes have to test before every rehearsal and concert, although both are vaccinated.

That's not to say everyone does, and some only will if forced to, but anything that reduces the number of symptom-free carriers or people at the 'I think it's just a cold' stage being around other people is going to help.

(We discovered, through a volunteer survey, that we both must have had Covid last spring as we both have disease antibodies and vaccine antibodies, although we didn't have enough symptoms--no fever--to be tested at the time, and wasn't unlike a really bad cold or flu. We were definitely ill, but nowhere near needing medical care and were only really ill for a few days each.)

Testing for a virus doesn't exactly slow its spread.

Actually, strategic testing for a virus, when done right, has quite a lot to do with slowing its spread.

But, will enough people take the test and stay home if they are sick? Doubtful.

This.

These tests can be modified faster than a vaccine and slow the spread while a new vaccine is made.

Testing for a virus doesn't exactly slow its spread.

They take about 15 minutes to get results and would cost about one dollar each. Right now people can be shedding and not know it.

You don't say! *laughs* Right now, people being notified they have COVID are walking out of hospitals AMA -- against medical advice -- and carrying on with their lives knowingly shedding the virus.

With these tests they could know when they are shedding and stay home.

Not bloody likely.

I think your outlook is likely accurate for a large number of areas/states in America, but I can tell you for a fact that they're expecting and ramping up for the holiday spikes in the South.

It is true that vaccines alone won't get us out of this pandemic, especially when we are so far away from equitable distribution of vaccines globally.

And, I agree we need a much more efficient testing regime. But, will enough people take the test and stay home if they are sick? Doubtful.

And, I do love your sense of urgency around testing.

You know, fighting viruses ain't rocket science, even during a pandemic. All I can say is that I hope lessons have been learned and that everyone recognizes that there needs to be a massive investment in public health and the public health architecture that is required to test, isolate, quarantine contacts etc etc etc.

And, people just need to wash their damn hands and stop being sick in public, for God's sake!!! :)

The more people there are who are vaccinated, the harder it will be for any variant to wreak havoc.

Any variant? Aren't you forgetting about the variants yet to emerge that could be resistent to current vaccines?

What if we (and by 'we' I mean citizens of the world, heh) have to go through a whole other round of vaccinations to protect us from the new vaccine-resistant variant(s)?

That's not at all far-fetched - on the contrary! What surprises me most about this pandemic and how the world has dealt with it, or not, is that more variants haven't taken hold that are far more infectious/vaccine-resistant than the ones we have seen so far.

Viruses mutate. That's what they do. It's their own singular raison d'etre, in other words. And, considering the small percentage of the world's population that is currently fully vaxed, I'm afraid that we are ALL living on borrowed time unless we change the way we are dealing with this pandemic.