https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-pigs-fly-they-want-drinks-leg-room-11605022688?mod=e2tw
When Pigs Fly, They Want Drinks, Leg Room – WSJ
November 15, 2020Q&A: A New Tool for Ensuring Genetic Privacy | The Scientist Magazine(R)
November 15, 2020Yale team finds way to protect genetic privacy in research | YaleNews
November 15, 2020Covid-19 vaccine distribution agreement with pharmacies, measles cases hit 23-year high, & participation in cancer trials
November 15, 2020https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=f8609630ae206654824f897b6&id=0f6743c131
QT:{{”
Lab Chat: Cleaning up genetic data to protect privacy but get maximum use
As research using genetic data has accelerated in recent decades, scientists are trying to find ways to get the most out of the data while still preserving individuals’ privacy. In a new study, experts describe a program that allows them to “sanitize” and blur out any identifying genetic variants in available data. I spoke with Mark Gerstein and Gamze Gursoy, two authors of the study and bioinformatics researchers at Yale, to learn more:
What is the current problem with privacy, and which datasets have this problem? Gerstein: There is this binary view of privacy — either the data is locked or not locked. It’s hard to aggregate data when it’s locked down and what we’re trying to do in the paper is measure the amount of private information in there so we can just remove that [and access the rest].
Gursoy: Some examples of databases with this problem are the Cancer Genome Atlas, and even the one we manage, called PsychENCODE [for understanding the genetics of psychiatric disorders].
How did you cover up the private data?
Gursoy: We have a reference genome that represents everyone — but there is 1% that’s unique to each of us. So, if you see an “A” in the genetic code of the reference genome, but a “G” in the data you have, you change it to the “A.”
Gerstein: When you use Google’s Street View, the people on the street are unimportant to the information you’re trying to get about stores, etc. The Google car takes pictures of people’s faces, but then finds people in the images and blurs them out. Our process is similar. “}}
Why Polling on The 2020 Presidential Election Missed the Mark – The New York Times
November 14, 2020QT:{{”
Senator Susan Collins did not lead in a single publicly released poll during the final four months of her re-election campaign in Maine. But Ms. Collins, a Republican, won the election comfortably.
Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, trailed in almost every poll conducted in his race. He won, too.
And most polls underestimated President Trump’s strength, in Iowa, Florida, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Instead of winning a landslide, as the polls suggested, Joseph R. Biden Jr. beat Mr. Trump by less than two percentage points in the states that decided the election.
…
This year’s misleading polls had real-world effects, for both political parties. The Trump campaign pulled back from campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin, reducing visits and advertising, and lost both only narrowly. In Arizona, a Republican strategist who worked on Senator Martha McSally’s re-election campaign said that public polling showing her far behind “probably cost us $4 or $5 million” in donations. Ms. McSally lost to Mark Kelly by less than three percentage points.
…
A separate set of changes may involve how the media present polling and whether publications spend as much money on it in the future. “The media that sponsor polls should demand better results because their reputations are on the line,” James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state, wrote in The Wall Street Journal this week.
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By David Leonhardt
Nov. 12, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/us/politics/election-polls-trump-biden.html
Good Grief, the Pollsters Got It Wrong – WSJ
November 14, 2020‘I Don’t Have a Happy Ending’: A Pollster on What Went Wrong – The New York Times
November 14, 2020By Lisa Lerer
Nov. 11, 2020
Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/us/politics/polls-election-pollster-interview.html
