Coronavirus in the United States - news and thoughts

Respectfully disagree. Misinformation is effectively countered by transparency.

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In a full information setting (where people have unlimited capability of gaining information), that is correct. However, multiple studies have shown that misinformation is disseminated faster and is more likely to be believed under certain conditions specifically because it can be crafted to optimize spread and belief, whereas real information is often confusing and contradictory to individual's preferences or even prior expectations.

 

That theory sounds good, but it hasn't shown to be effective in practice.

 

No doubt, but transparency is like a vaccine for the spreading virus of misinformation.

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Where have you seen such transparency fail to negate misinformation?

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In theory, not in practice. Not sure where there has been a lack of transparency (leaving aside early on with Trump himself and those around him, which is a whole other ball of wax).

e.g. I think of the three or four anti-vax radio hosts who died prematurely of covid (two who regretted not being vaxxed) and the millions they reached. How do you counter that when their consumers choose them over better information? How do you counter a movement that has continued to shower hate on one of the most heralded researchers who has dedicated his life to fighting infectious disease?

 

*Gestures around broadly*

 

It should be noted that at least in this country, the highest confidence level people had in mass media and the information it disseminated was when it was heavily consolidated in private hands and was under some level of government oversight

 

I don't think we're going to see eye to eye on the notion of there being a lack of transparency with respect to COVID policies. I've mentioned the issues in plenty going back to 2020. Presumably, we can at least acknowledge DeSantis' part in a lack of transparency (I can read the room).

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The English government releases statistics that show that the vaccine considerably lowers death rates by Covid. That is the transparency. How it failed to negate misinformation is that people looking to spread misinformation, including on this very thread, eliminated the age component in the analysis (despite not only acknowledging it but emphasizing it in other contexts) to try to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the vaccines. That is the misinformation. Transparency was used by those who spread misinformation because most people didn't actually look up the statistics or didn't have the background to know what they were reading.

 

This has been asked and answered for over 2 years now. Outreach, exchange of ideas, find out what questions people have, well-advertised townhalls, genuine FAQs (not imagined ones); offer reduced hospital rates for people willing to share their stories; compassion for those who are hard to reach; a greater sharing of data (presumably non-identifiable); hotlines that weren't just automated phone answering services. Just off the top of my head.

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I think you give more credit than is due. How many posters here unwaveringly stuck with the misinformed view of the vaccine? Do Q, 95, Buckeye, others not acknowledge that the vaccine is effective for the elderly? Or were there other posters? I think Rick is the only one that is diehard anti-vax, no?

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Often, they do not. Or the acknowledge it in one breath and dispute it in the next. So, for example, they might say something like "Perhaps it was effective for those that are high risk, whom we know who they are, but here is [insert some information from a carefully curated selection of the data rather than a random set of data or a misinterpretation of the analysis of the data] that says that vaccines aren't effective."

I think you would give way more credit to the first part of the sentence and pay way too little attention to the second.

 

All these things exist already. Yet these efforts were overwhelmed by the viral spread of mis & disinfo. That to me is one of the features that will define our response to covid. There are a lot data available and increased efforts to make even more, but I def agree about wanting (and needing mroe). However, did you know that 2/3rds of the states don't provide data on their vaccinations and cases & deaths to the CDC?

 

I think the vaccine should be taken by every adult in the US unless they have already had covid. My issue is kids taking the vaccine.

 

I've cited flaws with both the CDC FAQ and the FDOH FAQ pages. The townhalls we have had locally were useful, but either exclusive or not promoted...thus poorly attended. We don't have anybody locally or at the state level that is useful in any request for additional information. If these requests come in a lot, they should be added to the FAQ page

There have been other outreach issues that I covered on the FL thread that I don't need to re-hash here; mostly local and/or NCF as a whole.

So I can't settle for the idea that these things exist already. In whatever capacity they did exist, they were far short of effective, and I think the proof is in the results of how people reacted. Just my opinion, of course.

Unacceptable and unsurprising.

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I have never done that. All adults should have taken the vaccine UNLESS they have previously had covid. I was fine with companies mandating it. My stance is kids shouldn't take the vaccine unless they have underlying conditions.

 

Covid vaccine, 2020 election to name the most prominent

 

Well you live in a state where the governor has done his level best to be the antithesis of providing good science-based information, though that shouldn't apply to county or city public health departments. But occasional flaws are going to be part of any such effort when things are dynamic and sometimes competing, and fast-moving. Yet, there's such a fundamental difference between well-meaning efforts and people like RFK Jr. and Joe Mercola spewing nonsense that gets spread around social media that it's not even a close call in my mind...and social media has been a driver of it.

We've seen how this has played out with vaccines and the unmistakable differences between groups with the highest vaccination rates vs those with the lowest.

 

This is true. He has been very consistent in all points.