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Any appeal to altruism or people coming together to fight this or "do a little more" is doomed to fail. If the solution relies on almost everyone doing the same thing, it's a nonstarter. They won't, they just won't, and there's nothing that can be said or done to change them. It's wasted effort trying to bring everyone around to a cause in this day and age.
If it were something like 1 in 3 chance of death, there's still going to be a lot of people willing to roll the dice because everyone's risk tolerance is different. You'll still have resistance.
There are people out there who literally said they voted for candidates in 2016 that they thought would most hurt their political enemies. These people will cut off their nose to spite their face, but we think they'll do a little more for the common good?
There are people out there who are convinced this is all a hoax, even as people die around them, and they will not be swayed. If people can ardently believe the earth is flat despite the data in front of them, they can believe millions sick around them is background noise and conspiracy theories, too.
I saw the poll that said if a vaccine were available today for Covid, enough people would refuse to get it that we'd fail to achieve herd immunity.
Convincing a supermajority of this country to comply with the CDC guidelines is like convincing a wolf to be a vegetarian. It is folly.
I totally disagree with this. There are clearly many who truly don't understand its seriousness, because all they rely on for new are the mainstream networks that have massively failed to cover that aspect. The more educated people become, the better choices they will make. Of course you get the ones who will never care, but it's become very clear that the higher compliance the better (even if 100% can never be achieved).
There are people out there who are convinced this is all a hoax, even as people die around them, and they will not be swayed. If people can ardently believe the earth is flat despite the data in front of them, they can believe millions sick around them is background noise and conspiracy theories, too.
I saw the poll that said if a vaccine were available today for Covid, enough people would refuse to get it that we'd fail to achieve herd immunity.
Convincing a supermajority of this country to comply with the CDC guidelines is like convincing a wolf to be a vegetarian. It is folly.
Agree, and yet strangely, the rest of the developed world has somehow figured out how to do this.
This is the sort of dangerous drivel our populace is hearing from its leaders. Not sure the Gov himself sees the irony of what he's saying. He's admitting that school kids will get COVID, and take it home with them. Does he not think that the parents would therefore get it from their kids?
“These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson said in an interview Friday with radio host Marc Cox on KFTK. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”
Agree, and yet strangely, the rest of the developed world has somehow figured out how to do this.
They still held on to enough shreds of unity to pull it off is my suspicion. There's certainly tensions as alt-right elements rise up across the world, but we're in some bizarro state where violence toward political opponents is not only accepted, but encouraged.
I feel 10x safer wearing a Yankees cap at Fenway (or a Sox cap at Yankee stadium) than I would driving through Alabama with a Hillary bumper sticker.
Any appeal to altruism or people coming together to fight this or "do a little more" is doomed to fail. If the solution relies on almost everyone doing the same thing, it's a nonstarter. They won't, they just won't, and there's nothing that can be said or done to change them. It's wasted effort trying to bring everyone around to a cause in this day and age.
If it were something like 1 in 3 chance of death, there's still going to be a lot of people willing to roll the dice because everyone's risk tolerance is different. You'll still have resistance.
There are people out there who literally said they voted for candidates in 2016 that they thought would most hurt their political enemies. These people will cut off their nose to spite their face, but we think they'll do a little more for the common good?
There are people out there who are convinced this is all a hoax, even as people die around them, and they will not be swayed. If people can ardently believe the earth is flat despite the data in front of them, they can believe millions sick around them is background noise and conspiracy theories, too.
I saw the poll that said if a vaccine were available today for Covid, enough people would refuse to get it that we'd fail to achieve herd immunity.
Convincing a supermajority of this country to comply with the CDC guidelines is like convincing a wolf to be a vegetarian. It is folly.
Many stories in ancient scriptures tell of civilizations that doomed themselves to failure when they stopped accepting logical reasoning and believing in the truth. The ideologues of today who believe in only what they want to believe in fall into this category. History might again repeat itself.
I totally disagree with this. There are clearly many who truly don't understand its seriousness, because all they rely on for new are the mainstream networks that have massively failed to cover that aspect. The more educated people become, the better choices they will make. Of course you get the ones who will never care, but it's become very clear that the higher compliance the better (even if 100% can never be achieved).
Except it's not clear to these people, and at this point it can't ever be. It's beyond don't understand and into won't understand. You cannot educate people who believe education is the enemy.
There was a point a few months back where a unified message from all sides could have made this possible. That ship sailed when Team Trump opened their collective mouths in opposition to this. They made this political and they made this a war. They've been instructed not only to ignore information, but to distrust it. Once those people have picked a side, they're not going to change. You could hand them proof on a silver platter and they will reject it.
We're seeing the Backfire Effect in its ultimate form: make your stance on how you approach Covid part of your identity, and any attempt to change that becomes an attack on you personally. Call it alternative facts, Fox bubble, whatever...the fact remains. Fox actually has started backpedaling on some of their rhetoric, and the response from their base has been revolt. I have family who now think Fox is part of the problem and have fled to OAN and the like. This isn't a majority obviously, but it's a significant enough number to endanger any attempt at mass education and cooperation.
Except it's not clear to these people, and at this point it can't ever be. It's beyond don't understand and into won't understand. You cannot educate people who believe education is the enemy.
There was a point a few months back where a unified message from all sides could have made this possible. That ship sailed when Team Trump opened their collective mouths in opposition to this. They made this political and they made this a war. They've been instructed not only to ignore information, but to distrust it. Once those people have picked a side, they're not going to change. You could hand them proof on a silver platter and they will reject it.
We're seeing the Backfire Effect in its ultimate form: make your stance on how you approach Covid part of your identity, and any attempt to change that becomes an attack on you personally. Call it alternative facts, Fox bubble, whatever...the fact remains. Fox actually has started backpedaling on some of their rhetoric, and the response from their base has been revolt. I have family who now think Fox is part of the problem and have fled to OAN and the like. This isn't a majority obviously, but it's a significant enough number to endanger any attempt at mass education and cooperation.
How can you make that claim when the masses haven't been given proper information in the first place, by Fox, CNN or ANY of those sources?
How can you make that claim when the masses haven't been given proper information in the first place, by Fox, CNN or ANY of those sources?
Who's going to tell them? Fauci? They're working on creating an aura of distrust toward him. Fox, CNN? Fake news. Scientists and doctors? Liberal elitists. CDC? Deep state. OAN? Good luck there.
I think you underestimate just how much damage has been done undermining faith and confidence in traditional institutions of knowledge and education.
How can you make that claim when the masses haven't been given proper information in the first place, by Fox, CNN or ANY of those sources?
What "proper information" are you referring to? The CDC issued mask guidelines on APRIL 3. The death toll at that point was 7,600 in the US. It's now 140,000. Imagine how much this would have been cut down had people followed the CDC, whose very purpose to exist is because of situations like this.
You're telling me that people didn't know what to do because they don't have information that's been around for months?
I totally disagree with this. There are clearly many who truly don't understand its seriousness, because all they rely on for news are the mainstream networks that have massively failed to cover that aspect. The more educated people become, the better choices they will make. Of course you get the ones who will never care, but it's become very clear that the higher compliance the better (even if 100% can never be achieved).
Is this really the case? We're one of the many households that has unplugged from cable TV, so it's been months since I've seen a mainstream network broadcast on TV, and probably years since I've sat down and actually watched a segment. But the news sources I check regularly post current guidance and have had current tallies of case counts and death tolls updated daily since March. And every day there are new stories published about the impacts of COVID-19 - from big picture stories to some pretty heartbreaking spotlights on individual cases. It's inescapable. Are the major cable networks really all that different? Have they really not broadcast any of the pertinent measures or guidelines? And if they actually haven't, what percentage of viewers don't have access to the internet or social media where this information has been broadcast far and wide since the beginning?
A quick scan of the major cable news networks websites this morning yielded mixed results - COVID is the major feature on CNN ("Pandemic far from over in U.S." being the marquee text on the homepage). MSNBC leads with Joe Biden VP stories, but has some COVID stories (effectiveness of masks, vaccines, etc.) just below. Fox news had the least COVID coverage - leading with a "Defund the Police" headline and burying the COVID stuff a little bit further down the page (impact on pro sports, and CDC guidelines).
Like I said, I don't have access to these network channels and haven't tuned in for a long time. So I don't know for sure. But based on my experience I'd make the case that the reason for the indifference is more complex than just network news. Among a number of reasons, I'd blame the following:
Lack of exposure. I think for a huge chunk of the population, this is just a story they've seen on the news and something that's made it more difficult to go to a restaurant/bar. There are many counties where there haven't been a single case, and many more where life hasn't changed all that month. Here in MA, that's not the case. I've seen the makeshift morgue trucks. I've lost two coworkers and seen a few more end up in the hospital. I've heard first hand accounts of how awful this can be, even for survivors (even survivors who weren't hospitalized). So it's hard not to take it seriously. But for my nearly-retired father working remotely in the mountains of Western Maine, it's little more than a nuisance in that it makes going to the store a bit more of a hassle, and it's harder to get a seat at a restaurant. Lots of Americans have had a similar experience to my father. Even now, with much of the South and West surging, communities in those states are relatively unscathed and it's not as real to many of the people who live there. No amount of media coverage will make it real for them either - it's something that's happening to minority communities or people in the big cities, but not their problem.
Politicization of the pandemic. From a political standpoint, it's beneficial to some in power to downplay the severity of the pandemic. There is a lot of influence there, and a lot of people still believe it's either a complete hoax or that it's being blown out of proportion for political reasons. And the finger pointing from the opposition adds to the politicization of the pandemic while also distracting from many of the impactful stories that are out there.
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