Morbidity Dynamics in Ukraine
Zelensky and the roots of logical positivism
This is an updated post from May 21, cf. Rudolph Carnap’s criterion of cognitive significance, w/ intro quote by William W. Rozenboom, St. Olaf College, April 1960: A note on Carnap's Meaning Criterion, Philosophical Studies Journal
The “positive dynamics of COVID-19 infection” (позитивна динаміка захворюваності) was the reason stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 21, 2020 for easing nationwide quarantine restrictions.
In fact, Zelensky had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
Which got me thinking about Otto Neurath, the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics, who, along with Rudolph, was a leading figures of the Vienna Circle.
“Statistics is pure joy for the international proletariat in its relentless struggle against the ruling classes!'' Neurath once said famously.
Neurath's work on protocol statements tried to reconcile an empiricist concern for the grounding of knowledge in experience with the essential publicity of science. Bertrand Russell took issue with Neurath's account of protocol statements in his book An Inquiry Into Meaning and Truth, on the grounds that it severed the connection to experience that is essential to an empiricist account of truth, facts and knowledge.
Neither Neurath nor Russell would have agreed with Zelensky about Ukraine’s current positive dynamics of morbidity.
(updated from June 15)
It’s day whatever of Ukraine’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) disaster and it’s only getting worse.
In a nutshell, the positive dynamics of morbidity over the last 90 days have been driven by pathological bad thinking, whacko algorithms, formulations of set theory without variables, kooky mitigation models for flattening the curve, magical epidemic thinking, irredeemable health officials, pandemic politics and false assumptions promulgated by poorly calibrated agents with bad ideas who abandoned the precautionary principle.