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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦

@bill-comeau.bsky.social

15K followers 850 following 4K posts

Canadian. Statistician. Math. Show me the evidence. I've been known to dwell on the little things, like pandemics, population health, preventable deaths, disinformation, authoritarians, kleptocracies, annexation, and strengthening democracies. Also, Leafs.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · Nov 12

Thank you for following me on Bluesky. This profile pic is set at Newspaper Rock in Utah. Two thousand years ago people chose a place to share important information. They did not go there to confuse people with lies. They wanted to record the greatest achievements and truths about their time.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 2d

State of the world: There are a lot of people lying to you, your family, and your neighbours. Be careful in what you choose to believe.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 3d

The anti-science and populist Alberta government being in charge of ending a teachers’ strike is sort of like an arsonist being in charge of ending a firemen’s strike.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 3d

I’m not a fascist but if I was I would send the military into cities to squash protests against my authority. In my more revealing moments I might even call them anti-fascists. But all this is just hypothetical …

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 3d

This struck a chord.

Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 10d

One thing I've learned from the Internet is that a lie needs 0% proof to be believed, but the truth requires thousands of pages of proof and still won't be believed.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 4d

After 9 months I can say with a degree of confidence that MAHA is the opposite of what it says is. It can now join Big Brother’s “War is Peace” and “2+2=5” in the pantheon of Big Lies and DoubleThink.

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Reposted by Bill Comeau 🇨🇦

Jake Scott, MD @jakescottmd.bsky.social · 4d

RFK Jr. just fired Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo — a dedicated ID physician & researcher who has served this country with integrity & compassion — for defending evidence-based vaccine research. She was silenced, placed on leave, filed a whistleblower complaint, and terminated.
www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

RFK Jr. fires NIH vaccine whistleblower Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo

RFK Jr. fired infectious disease specialist Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who told CBS News she was put on leave after questioning actions taken by Trump appointees.

www.cbsnews.com

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Reposted by Bill Comeau 🇨🇦

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.bsky.social · 5d

President Macron:
“We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

French President Macron Speaks at German Unity Day Ceremony | WION LIVE

YouTube video by WION

www.youtube.com

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 5d

No reason for this to be happening in 2025. In my view, those who have helped promote vaccine hesitancy shoulder part of the blame. Measles is not safe for mothers or their babies. The vaccine is safe and it works. Fact.

Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 5d

So tragic: Alberta baby born with congenital #measles (mother contracted measles late in pregnancy) died shortly after birth.
The province, which has had a massive measles outbreak this year, says this is the 7th case of congenital measles in 2025. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Premature baby dies of measles in Alberta outbreak's 1st death | CBC News

Alberta is reporting its first measles death since outbreaks of the highly contagious illness began in March. The province says a baby, who was born prematurely after the mother became sick, died shor...

www.cbc.ca

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

I am reminded of JD Vance when pressed about evidence that his claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets was pure garbage, he stated that it was reported locally, so he had the right to amplify it and to continue amplifying it. This is the modus operandi of populists who lean into falsehoods.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

Let me remind you what a weird populist conservative politician sounds like. They will not reject a debunked conspiracy theory if their constituents believe it. This is part of the problem with the far-right, they nurture "popular" disinformation instead of stamp it out.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Office of Alberta Premier Smith responds to her comment about chemtrails | CBC News

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's office says her recent comments about chemtrails don't mean she believes the United States government is spraying them in the province.

www.cbc.ca

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

As is the case with many of the amateurish cover-up actions of this weird government, there was a scurrying of activity to have lower officials deflect blame away from higher government officials. The article describes that laughably pathetic activity when caught in the spotlight.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

The link I provided is actually open to read, it's an archived version of the Globe and Mail article.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

The hospital in question was in an area with a serious measles outbreak, an area with a large Mennonite population who were resistant to protective measures. The hospital first set a masking policy but the next day retracted it after "questions" from the Alberta government leadership.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 6d

What has become routine reporting on the anti-science dogma of the Alberta UCP government. (This is behind a paywall.)
There's a reason why Alberta leads in measles: persistent political resistance to masking and vaccination efforts, even in epicentre hospitals.
archive.ph/j5JXu/again?...

archive.ph

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 7d

Canada must learn from this rapid decline, our free press is a cornerstone of our democracy and key to our fight to fend off disinformation and propaganda.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 7d

The LA Times' 40+ Pulitzer Prizes, WAPO's Woodward and Bernstein, CBS News' 60 Minutes. They were all part of what made America "Great" and more importantly, respected. Now they are the walking dead, trophies for Trump's gilded bookcase.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 7d

I remember a time when the LA Times, The Washington Post, and CBS News stood for journalistic integrity and were independent from government pressure. Now they are just sad proof of how easily America's "Freedom of the Press" bends to the corrupt power of Trump and his billionaire bros.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 7d

Science covers an almost limitless number of areas not fully understood. Jane Goodall studied her one area of interest meticulously and with grace, and made the world a little bit better for it.

B. Justice @zefirotorna.bsky.social · 7d

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91 www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...

Jane Goodall, Eminent Primatologist Who Chronicled the Lives of Chimps, Dies at 91

www.nytimes.com

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 7d

One of several remaining on the radar but not overly concerning at this point.
"our findings indicate that BA.3.2 exhibits robust antibody evasion but has low ACE2-binding capability and infectivity, which substantially limits its likelihood of prevailing."
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Antigenic and virological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 variants BA.3.2, XFG, and NB.1.8.1

The SARS-CoV-2 saltation variant BA.3.2, harbouring over 50 mutations relative to its ancestral BA.3 lineage, has recently drawn global attention (figure A). Notably, BA.3.2 exhibits 44 mutations dist...

www.thelancet.com

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Reposted by Bill Comeau 🇨🇦

Tim Onion @bencollins.bsky.social · 8d

Just gonna keep tapping the sign*

*𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

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Reposted by Bill Comeau 🇨🇦

Adam Kucharski @adamjkucharski.bsky.social · 7d

At our recent @lshtm.bsky.social event on misinformation, Chris Whitty gave some useful reflections on common causes and some important considerations for handling it.

Full event: www.youtube.com/live/H_nClQ2...

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 10d

I taught myself R and Tableau during the pandemic. ChatGPT would have most likely sped up my learning several fold and expanded the scope of what I could do. But you need to know what you’re trying to solve in clear instructions. Can easily be garbage in garbage out.

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 10d

My experience today with ChatGPT. I gave it a moderately challenging logical problem that needed to be solved by a script in a coding language I don’t know. It handed me a script, gave me options. I tested the script, its solution was missing one thing. I told it and it fixed it within seconds. Hmm

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 11d

The question Canadians should be asking is this: "If Trump can falsely describe a peaceful city in his own country as "war ravaged" and order troops in with the authority to use lethal force, then how much of a leap is it for him to eventually do the same against Canada, using another fake pretext."

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Bill Comeau 🇨🇦 @bill-comeau.bsky.social · 11d

Wise advice. The contact circle around the most vulnerable are often their greatest risk.