An open letter to wejo

interested reader wrote:

wejo,

this place is pretty rough and tumble, gritty, kinda like the wild west, and I usually like it that way. We get a wide range of opinions, discussion and debate, a lot of it ill-founded, but in a way that reflects real life and society (if perhaps serving to amplify the more extreme perspectives via anonymity). I don't mind reading some pretty outrageous (and often offensive) stuff on here, and anyway you usually do a pretty good job of trimming away the most extreme, hateful stuff.

Today we are facing an urgent global health crisis. I've been following the daily data and have plotted several countries trends, including US and Canada, using the day where case count exceeded 100 as day 1:

https://ibb.co/yFrfqJb

Here is the same plot with confirmed cases on a log scale:

https://ibb.co/vY2Qbc6

The sobering conclusion to be drawn from these data is that Canada and US are following similar trends as those experienced in China and elsewhere, and as such we are on track to see cases explode here like elsewhere. Kindly note in viewing these plots that the data show a picture looking back in time, since confirmed cases are counted several days after someone first presents with symptoms, and then it takes time for each case to be reported and aggregated.

We've watched this slow train coming since it left the station in Wuhan China. We've watched it pick up speed and catch fire before arriving in our station. Now the crisis is growing, at an alarming rate, in our communities, and we all need to rally around strong measures to wrestle the situation under control.

Here is my plea to you: commentary that diminishes the importance of this crisis is harmful to the public health. Foot-dragging, encouraged by "disbelievers" like, for example, Bad Wigins and dunes runner, has the very real potential to increase infections and the number of drastic outcomes. As a public service to all of us, please use your discretion to stamp out "fake news" commentary. This is not like the global warming debates, where the coming changes are arriving slowly; this crisis is here now, it is evolving rapidly and unpredictably, and every day we sit on our hands, we allow more of our friends and family to get sick and die.

Please consider this request to moderate the discussion on this topic in a way that's consistent with the science being shared by our public health authorities around the world, and limit voices claiming this will all amount to nothing. Your own family's long term health and survival may depend on it.

Math Professor wrote:

Ultramarkus wrote:

Thanks for this.

Wejo as a leader needs to write something to guide these young runners in the right direction. There is a lot of wrong ideas out there, you can read them on a lot of letsrun posts.

Just to say this is a forum and we can't read every comment is pretty lame.

Can any of you alarmists even create any proper statistics? Everything I've seen from you panic types is so flawed its like none of you ever took statistics in math class. Everything we have seen shows the vast majority of people either show no symptoms after being infected or very mild symptoms. Only those with some other pre-existing disease that already made them sick have more complicated symptoms. Can you at least acknowledge that the coronavirus is not dangerous for the vast majority of people? If you can't even acknowledge that, what are you even doing here?

wejo wrote:

Par for the course wrote:

How about instead of nitpicking the calls to action, you lay out your own bold plan to combat misinformation? Would it be easier to acknowledge your responsibility (especially during this time), if you didn't even have a suggested course of action to nitpick and toss aside?

As I said, we review ALL posts reported to us. Our moderators also are on these forums and delete posts we think should be deleted.

We actively delete posts that are knowingly false and many others. If there is a post you think we have missed email us directly.

Erik our web guy, his wife is a doctor in an ICU in Iowa. My wife is pregnant and due in May, Steve's wife is pregnant and due in May and we are hearing the steps hospitals are taking to make sure they are prepared for a likely surge in COVID patients.

To say we don't think this is serious isn't accurate. People are going to disagree on what we should allow (Someone ripped into me asking yesterday in what places is running banned, but I think it is a legitimate question), but if you contact me directly or just use the "Report a post" button we will review the post. We now also track posts moderators OK'd.

fartlekpa wrote:

Last post for me, as sh*t is starting to get real on my end. We've seen an influx of patients past 24 hours at my hospital. Still none in my unit but we have several rule outs. Last night we nearly put a + COVID patient on ECMO (age was <50yr)--thankfully they improved with proning (flipping on their stomach) and didn't need ECMO. We're anticipating more. Time will tell but we're essentially on lock down--no visitors at all.

A lot of gossip coming out of NY and Seattle--colleagues are talking frequently and the messaging is clear--it is mostly older population but there are definitely young, fit people who are not only symptomatic but critically ill. DO NOT f*ck around with this. Be smart and make good decisions. It's not just your life on the line. Healthcare workers in the area are starting to test positive which isn't a good sign.

Lastly, two very good reads I will share---both a little technical but helpful in understanding why we're taking such extreme precaution. The first is the main article and the second is a minor critique of the first with some important info:

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdfhttps://www.academia.edu/42242357/Review_of_Ferguson_et_al_Impact_of_non-pharmaceutical_interventions..._

If you're on twitter, Yaneer Bar-Yam is the best person to follow--daily tracking and updates on how we're doing against COVID. Very informative and extremely up to date.

Ignore the skeptics. Keep yourself and your family safe.