Ferri Tales

Updated on June 3 , 2021 (This is the last update.) The four graphs below show, for selected countries, daily COVID-19 cases, daily COVID-19 deaths, daily COVID-19 Case Mortality rate, and Days to Double. Data is from worldometer.info . The graph below shows the 7 day moving average of daily cases of COVID-19. The graph below shows the 7 day moving average of daily COVID-19 deaths. The graph below shows the 7 day moving average of the daily case mortality rate from COVID-19 -- the number of reported daily deaths divided by the number of reported daily cases expressed as a percent. In the U.S., it has increased from less than 1% in November to over 3.5% in early February. The graph below shows the days required for the total number of cases to double. A higher days-to-double is better. The graphs will be updated daily.  John L. Ferri jlferri@epix.net

       Photo credit: Brianne Ostrander (Daily Review/AP) Chad Salsman, District Attorney for Bradford County, was arrested on February 3rd by Pennsylvania State Police and charged as follows:  3 counts for sexual assault, 12 for witness/victim intimidation, 2 for promoting or encouraging prostitution, 2 for obstruction of law, and 5 for indecent assault. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the charges in a press conference at the Bradford County Courthouse after they were handed down by the 45th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury. Shapiro said that Salsman has been investigated for "routinely assaulting women that he represented as a private attorney," prior to being elected as District Attorney in 2020. His bail was set at $500,000. He paid the required 10%, and was released later the same day as the arrest. Shapiro stated that, “Five women, independent of one another, experienced the same pattern of advances, coercion, and assault at the hands of Mr. Salsm

Joe Biden will become president on January 20th regardless of what Trump, his enablers, his supporters, and Bradford county (PA) commissioner Doug McLinko believe. How did this happen? There are two scenarios. The first is that Democrats rigged the election. The brilliant plot even sacrificed some down-ballot elections to divert suspicion. The plot even survived scrutiny of Republican led states who certified Biden as the winner because they could find no valid reason to do otherwise. The second scenario is that tens of millions of people already knew or finally realized that Trump is a lousy president who is not interested in doing his job. He golfs obsessively. He has done almost nothing to slow or stop the pandemic and has actively exacerbated its spread. He is a white supremacist with no impulse control who denies science. Democrats merely convinced 81 million people to vote. After losing, he is whining and grifting his supporters for money that he will use personally. Trump's

In November 2016, Kellyanne Conway tweeted , "306. Landslide. Blowout. Historic," of Trump's win over Hillary Clinton even though Hillary had 3 million more popular votes. Four years later, Joe Biden's win over Trump is even more of a landslide historic blowout. Even though Trump received 72.9 million votes, the record for a sitting president, 5.8 million more people voted for Biden. Trump has lied about election security since taking office and is still lying about it. He slowed mail delivery. Republicans attempted to suppress votes any way they could. Their efforts failed miserably even during a deadly pandemic. No evidence of fraud has been found anywhere, and Trump's desperate and ill-conceived lawsuits are being dismissed everywhere. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared this election the most secure ever. Trump fired the person who told the truth. In desperation, Trump proposed to the leaders of four critical states that they select their elect

During an interview with a WENY reporter, Bradford County (PA) commissioner Doug McLinko said the recent spike of covid-19 cases in the county is taking its "natural course" and that we shouldn't "live in fear", but to not "put yourself in harm's way." He also said that he would not take part in any discussions to shut down the county and, "we just have to be vigilant and tough and get through it." McLinko has adopted the herd immunity plan of Donald Trump and his non-epidemiologist medical advisor Dr. Scott Atlas. The plan is to allow the virus to spread among younger and healthier people who have a higher chance of survival until enough people have developed immunity (the herd level) to stop the spread of further infection. There are several problems: First, immunity after an infection hasn't yet been proven. Second, it will be next to impossible to protect vulnerable people if ten of thousands in the county are infected. And third

Donald Trump has been attempting to reduce the reported covid-19 deaths with outright lies. His latest con is that the U.S. deaths are overstated by a factor of 16. He claims that the number of deaths are only 6% of the reported numbers. According to the CDC, covid-19 was listed as the only cause of death in 6% of the cases and that, on average, for the remaining deaths, "there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death." By Trump's logic, if he shot a man in the middle of Fifth Avenue and then the man had a heart attack and died, the cause of death would not be the gun shot.   He conveniently ignores that the 7 day averages for U.S. death rates of approximately 2% from covid-19 is consistent with that of other countries. None report death rates 16 times lower. The CDC also reports that U.S. excess deaths from covid-19 since February 1st range from approximately 202,000 to 263,000. These figures are in direct conflict with Trump's lies and agree with rea

During his first run for president, Donald Trump implied that he could fix what Obama had done. Here are a few of Obama's accomplishments: he fixed the economy that tanked while G.W. Bush was busy fighting a war of choice that killed almost 4500 American soldiers and maimed tens of thousands more; he successfully stopped several potential epidemics by listening to experts; and he passed a well liked health care program that covers per-existing conditions. Trump did "fix" some of Obama's successes: he has repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempted to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with nothing, even during a pandemic; he failed to follow the pandemic response playbook Obama created and let a deadly pandemic infect over 6 million Americans, killing 180,000 with more to come; and his choice to ignore the pandemic has destroyed the U.S. economy and his chance for valid re-election. After WWI, Hitler became dictator of a Germany destroyed by a war they started by promising t

In an ongoing attempt to reopen schools before the coronavirus pandemic is under control, Trump claimed that children are "almost immune from the disease…. They just don't have a problem." He also claimed that the reason we have so many cases is because we test so much, and that the virus will "go away like things go away." His comments were removed from Twitter and Facebook because they are factually wrong and ignore all of the evidence that has been collected since the beginning of the pandemic. Children should be able to return to school. It's the best place for learning, and not only of academic subjects. They also learn to socialize and interact with their peers and with teachers. They learn that hard work has benefits. It also allows parents or guardians to work while children are in school. But the reopening of schools should happen only if it is safe to do so. School children have been the most quarantined group in the country because of

Walmart Corporation recently instituted a policy that will mandate facial masks in all of their stores beginning on Monday, July 20. They weren't clear about exceptions or how they will enforce their mandate. I was at Walmart, Sayre, PA for about an hour on Thursday, July 16. Mask compliance was about 75%. I spoke with a manager, Lisa Barnes, and wished her luck for Monday. I asked how they intended to enforce mask compliance. She said that incidents would be reported to managers and they would respond. She didn't elaborate. Walmart should not require their already underpaid workers to be the enforcers. Stores in the Elmira and Horseheads areas of New York including a Walmart and Sam's Club have mandated masks for months. Customers wear them because it is enforced. There are no exceptions. No mask, no service. Also, breaking with Trump, these Republican governors have mandated masks in their states: Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, Kay Ivey of Alabama, and Jim Justice of W