Pandemic deaths have numbed our humanity and perception of risk
COVID-19 is not the first event to demonstrate the numbing effect of big data, but it reinforces the challenge of developing a true perspective of risk.
This article was first published in the newsletter Managing Outcomes
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On one terrible day in December, COVID-19 deaths on a single day in the United States for the first time exceeded the death toll from the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.
Commentators noted that the 3054 COVID fatalities in one 24-hour period also exceeded the deaths at Pearl Harbour in 1941, and more than died as a result of the Johnstown flood in 1889; Hurricane Katrina in 2005; Hurricane Maria in 2017; and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.
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Police have laid fraud charges against a number of people, alleging that they dishonestly claimed government payments intended for bushfire victims.
Many of the alleged offenders are said to have links to the Rebels bikie gang.
Six men, aged from 25 to 32, and three women, aged 26 to 37, were arrested as part of a two-day operation throughout western Sydney.
It is alleged the group claimed $700,000 through a NSW Government grant scheme.
Alleged Bushfire Fraud
After the bushfires in early 2020, the NSW Government began a scheme offering relief grants of up to $40,000.