As a Pennsylvanian and the mother of a toddler, as far as I’m concerned, the measles outbreak here is the biggest news story at the moment. In an echo of Covid, much of the discourse now revolves around dying “with” versus “of” measles, a dispute at the heart of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s battle with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
So I wanted to know more about “with” vs. “of.” Lucky for me, Jess Steier and Elana Pearl Ben-Joseph of Unbiased Science agreed to delve into it, getting into the nitty-gritty of death certificates. “Death is usually a cascade, and the certificate is designed to capture it,” they write. Be sure to give it a read.
Recommendation of the week: Over at the Atlantic, Rogé Karma examines the doomsday AI discourse and asks the crucial question: “How exactly is AI supposed to kill us all?”
