.@GavinNewsom has made lots of showy announcements, vowing California would lead a smooth, equitable vaccine distribution plan across the state's 58 counties. He has propped up his administration as a leader & sought to reassure the public that he can handle it. Some comments:

Oct. 19: "We have long been in the vaccination business. Our experience with mass vaccinations makes us a unique partner with the CDC and DOD, based on the scale and scope of the vaccinations that occur on an annual basis here in the state of California."
Nov. 16: “Rather than criticizing the [Trump] administration, rather than lamenting about what could or should be done, we engaged proactively and continue to engage proactively to make sure we have a plan for safe and equitable distribution of the vaccine.”
Dec. 3: “There is light at the end of the tunnel. We are a few months away from truly seeing real progress with the vaccine, real distribution, real accessibility, real availability... You’ll be hearing good news on top of other good news."
Dec. 7: "Hope is on the horizon with a vaccination. We continue to accelerate our planning and preparedness for a safe, and equitable vaccine distribution," Newsom said. "I really believe this-you’re going to start hearing good news, and numbers that continue to significantly..."
Dec. 15: “We started this Vaccinate All 58 campaign, recognizing that all Californians need to be included in this vaccination process and we can’t leave folks behind...There is light at the end of the tunnel."
Jan. 4: “We are working aggressively to accelerate our pace. You’re going to start seeing more rapid distribution of this vaccine, I can assure you of that.”
Jan. 11: “We continue to do more to support the needs of getting these vaccines delivered, not only to our partners all up and down the state of California - thousands of them, but administered into people’s arms.”
Jan. 15: On expanding vaccination eligibility to people age 65 and older: “The vast majority of our counties will be moving very, very shortly in that direction.” State health official later said it would take until June to vaccinate Californians age 65 and older.
From the beginning, Newsom said his detailed vaccine advisory process, with input from multiple committees and dozens of stakeholders, would provide a clear and fair process that Newsom said "I hope gives people a little more confidence that we’re going to do things right."
Major changes are underway, but meanwhile people remain in chaos and it's unclear how the state's new changes will work, lots of remaining questions. We are waiting on major details, including details of the contract with insurance giant Blue Shield of California.
What stood out to me the most is how closely people are paying attention to @GavinNewsom's rhetoric on vaccinations, and how misled they feel - including Democrats who voted for him. “I know he’s trying, but honestly, at this point, I’m so soured." https://t.co/ffaGlTXP1I

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This is a piece I've been thinking about for a long time. One of the most dominant policy ideas in Washington is that policy should, always and everywhere, move parents into paid labor. But what if that's wrong?

My reporting here convinced me that there's no large effect in either direction on labor force participation from child allowances. Canada has a bigger one than either Romney or Biden are considering, and more labor force participation among women.

But what if that wasn't true?

Forcing parents into low-wage, often exploitative, jobs by threatening them and their children with poverty may be counted as a success by some policymakers, but it’s a sign of a society that doesn’t value the most essential forms of labor.

The problem is in the very language we use. If I left my job as a New York Times columnist to care for my 2-year-old son, I’d be described as leaving the labor force. But as much as I adore him, there is no doubt I’d be working harder. I wouldn't have stopped working!

I tried to render conservative objections here fairly. I appreciate that @swinshi talked with me, and I'm sorry I couldn't include everything he said. I'll say I believe I used his strongest arguments, not more speculative ones, in the piece.

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THREAD: 12 Things Everyone Should Know About IQ

1. IQ is one of the most heritable psychological traits – that is, individual differences in IQ are strongly associated with individual differences in genes (at least in fairly typical modern environments). https://t.co/3XxzW9bxLE


2. The heritability of IQ *increases* from childhood to adulthood. Meanwhile, the effect of the shared environment largely fades away. In other words, when it comes to IQ, nature becomes more important as we get older, nurture less.
https://t.co/UqtS1lpw3n


3. IQ scores have been increasing for the last century or so, a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. https://t.co/sCZvCst3hw (N ≈ 4 million)

(Note that the Flynn effect shows that IQ isn't 100% genetic; it doesn't show that it's 100% environmental.)


4. IQ predicts many important real world outcomes.

For example, though far from perfect, IQ is the single-best predictor of job performance we have – much better than Emotional Intelligence, the Big Five, Grit, etc. https://t.co/rKUgKDAAVx https://t.co/DWbVI8QSU3


5. Higher IQ is associated with a lower risk of death from most causes, including cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, most forms of cancer, homicide, suicide, and accident. https://t.co/PJjGNyeQRA (N = 728,160)