An irritating logical error that permeates the COVID-19 discussion

Apparently many people in influential media outlets don't know that the proposition

"most patients who die of COVID19 have [a given precondition]"

doesn't imply the proposition

"most COVID19 patients with [a given precondition] die."

This is a logic error; it's made in all sorts of news outlets and social media right now. 

Don't take my word that this is a logic error; here's a counter-example:

Ah, "science" in the media, always good for a laugh

There's nothing wrong with the idea of science in the media, per se: I want more and better science in the media. But there's a lot wrong when people who clearly don't know any science write (or illustrate) pieces about science or related matters like engineering, the environment, and space exploration.


The Wall St. Journal, where people who don't understand basic Physics units write tweets about trading systems designed by hordes of Math and Physics PhDs:

With friends like Engadget "green" writers, the environment won't improve.

The Motley Fool, being its foolish self.

That's it for September. A lot of incipient posts in the hamper, but paid work got in the way of blogging. Such is life.