The AFR reveals today that the Treasury's gargantuan $60bn forecast miss on the JobKeeper wage subsidy was entirely attributable to the government's reliance on the flawed epidemiological projections and medical advice that alleged the economy would need to be shut down for an unprecedented six months. At the time, this motivated the prime minister's repeated messaging that Australian businesses would have to go into a "six month hibernation".
Put differently, the forecasting failure here was an artefact of the equally immense success Australia has had in containing COVID-19 much more effectively than the epidemiologists (but not all analysts) expected, which in turn means we are not having to shell out as much money as had been originally planned. That's a good, not bad, thing.
Overdoing Democracy: Why We Must Put Politics in its Place by Robert B. Talisse, reviewed by Daniel Sutton at The Oxonian Review
The growing evidence on vitamin D and Covid | The Spectator
WHEN THE SCIENCE ISN’T SETTLED: No one knows what a perfect night’s sleep actually looks like.
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WELL, GOOD: Good News, We Can Activate The Cells That Keep Our Muscles From Wasting Away After 30
Pandemic diary 2020-05-05: Segregation cannot set you freeInterfluidity. Today’s must-read.What I Want the Woman Behind the Counter to Know NYT. “I hope when we can take off our masks, I get to tell you how much I need you.” Consider doing what you can to improve her material conditions?
Donald Trump says that ‘I tested positively toward negative…meaning I tested negative’ for coronavirus after taking hydroxychloroquine despite FDA warning of its dangers Daily Mail
- Here’s another media squabble: New York Times food columnist Alison Roman is on “temporary leave” after she gave an interview that criticized certain celebrities, including model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen. The Daily Beast’s Maxwell Tani has more.
- CNN and MSNBC are teaming up with Fox News in a lawsuit that involves the First Amendment and coronavirus coverage. For more, check out Brian Steinberg’s story in Variety and Ted Johnson’s story on Deadline.
- On the heels of its highly successful and critically acclaimed 10-part documentary “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan, ESPN will air tonight a never-before-seen cinematic production of Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals — Jordan’s last game with the Bulls. The two-and-a-half-hour film starts at 9 p.m. Eastern.
- The brilliant Wright Thompson of ESPN with Michael Jordan’s history of flight.
- Politico’s Beatrice Jin with the cool-looking “How the Pandemic Has Changed the Natural World, Illustrated.”
- Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds looks at a Gannett project that tiptoes the fine line between news and advertising. Does it cross that line?