(I wrote this as a comment reply, but decided it should be its own post)

History so far:
Pre-20th century: Most people ate a diet low in carbs and high in animal fats. Heart disease and diabetes are almost non-existent.

Early 20th century: Seed oil is marketed as replacement for animal fat. Crisco and margarine are king.

Mid 20th century: Heart disease has become a thing. A sensible person would say, "shit, must be these vegetable oils!" Nope. American Heart Association declares that animal fats are the problem. Seed oils become even more popular.

Late 20th century: Heart disease has accelerated. In 1977 the United States Government declares that fats are the problem (hey, at least they are half right which is better than the government usually does). Low fat/high carb is recommended.

Later 20th century: Starting in 1980 the obesity and diabetes rates are a hockey stick (and you don't even have to merge to completely different data sets to get it). A sensible person would say, "shit, it must be the low fat/high carb!" Nope. In 1992 the food pyramid is released and it recommends low fat/high carb.

Early 21st century: Obesity and diabetes continue to soar! Obesity is the new bitcoin! To the moon! 2005 revised pyramid. low fat/high carb. 2011 Pyramid is trashed for circle. Low fat/high carb. Changing the shape of the recommendation didn't help strangely enough.

Future: Who knows what horror this Beyond Food and bug burger future holds for us. Just like the early 20th century push for seed oil was a successful attempt to sell agricultural bioproducts as food so is the 21st century push for plant protein. The pea protein in Beyond burgers is a byproduct of glass noodle production in China.

My point is NEVER EVER EVER trust "the experts" on nutrition because they will always be in favor of whatever is profitable (and make your own mayonnaise).

This paper was just released: https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/Mask_RCT____Symptomatic_Seropositivity_083121.pdf which states, "...we find an imprecise zero,..." for the effectiveness of cloth masks. All the media coverage is crowing that it shows masks work (because it showed an 11% reduction in symptomatic seroprevalence for surgical masks) despite it showing the opposite for the type of mask that 90% of people are wearing. If they do mention the results for cloth masks, which NBC as example didn't, it is 100% below the fold and always accompanied by a hedging statement like "better than nothing" despite the paper indicating it is actually no different than nothing.

So I came across an article, "40% of local Covid-19 cases are in the vaccinated. What does that say about the vaccines?", https://archive.is/Y8dx5. It states 40% of local cases are in the vaccinated but gives the following to support that this doesn't reflect poorly on the vaccine:

The state health department said that Wednesday’s study found “unvaccinated New Yorkers were 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and eight times more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated.”

So, 40% of cases are in the vaccinated and Syracuse has a 60% vaccination rate. Let's do the math P(A|B) = P(B|A)P(A)/P(B). The probability of X is written P(X). The probability of X given Y is written P(X|Y). A is 'diagnosed with covid'. B is vaxxed. !B is not vaxxed. We don't know what P(A) is but that's okay, we will set it to x. P(A|B) = .4 * x / .6 and P(A|!B) = .6 * x / .4. The ratio of covid given not vaxxed to covid given vaxxed is P(A|!B)/P(A|B), (.6x/.4)/(.4x/.6) so .36/.16 or 9/4, 2.25. For the eight times statement to agree with with the reality the journalist has observed the vaccination rate would have to be 85% which would be an impossible number even if the vaccine was mandatory.

While I don't expect journalists to know bayes law I would expect them to at least find the numbers unlikely and maybe talk to a statistician instead of just spewing them out uncritically, but that would assume journalist was anything more than PR for the state.

So I was watching Andrew Klavan and he played a clip of Joy Reid. https://youtu.be/TGjEVtOIwkg?t=645 (good video by the way, Klavan has good takes on culture). I avoid corporate news but this clip has unsettled me. It's uncanny. Is this behavior normal in corporate media now? Is it just a cringey "fellow kids" moment where Reid is trying to poorly emulate clapback culture? Is the NPC meme real? I could see her declaring Lil Nas X as the Hero of Kvatch. Is Alex Jones right and they really are all infected with demons. The most unsettling thing is that millions could watch that display and say "yes, this is a thing I will continue to watch and take seriously."