Why are symptomatic people risking community spread when many asymptomatic people are self-isolating? It seems insane. Why's it happening? I think there are a few reasons, both cultural and structural. 4/14
-
Show this thread
-
Reason
#1a: Too many voices, all throwing out slightly, or radically, different information, causing information fatigue. Federal. State. Pundits. Extended family members spreading false information from right-wing media. It makes it harder for people to know what to do. 5/141 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason
#1b. The erosion of trust in institutions means that the real experts who we should be listening to for practical advice have to compete for mind-space with a know-nothing punditry who are still pushing some agenda or other that has nothing to do with public health. 6/141 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason #2: American definitions of freedom: the belief that Americans are free to do whatever feels right. This is powerful because people feel like they don't have to comply with government requests (absent enforcement and even then...) http://bit.ly/33xfiCY 7/14
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason #3: Lack of community solidarity. The reason why you self-isolate when presumed positive for the virus is NOT so YOU won't get it (probably too late) but so that others won't get it. If you don't feel any responsibility towards your neighbors you won't self-isolate. 8/14
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason #4: "I don't feel that bad" THIS right here is the killer about this thing, a lot of people don't get that sick (either at first or ever), so they don't understand that this could kill other people. A mild cough and fever? So what? I'm going about my day anyway. 9/14
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason #5: American Exceptionalism. Due to various accidents of history (Lower 48 out of bomber range during WW2), Americans believe that the rules that apply to the world do not apply to them; many Americans feel that they are personally invulnerable. 10/14
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason
#6a: Lack of public health infrastructure. We have a very well funded health system, it's just not a public health system. What does this mean? It means that many individuals will receive excellent care but community-level management of the epidemic could be poor 11/141 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason
#6b What happens when you have excellent healthcare for individuals who can pay but poor community-level management? First the poor suffer, then private hospitals get overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Better public health with "just OK" hospitals might be better 12/141 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread -
Reason #7 Poor social safety net. This means that the aftershocks of
#covid19 are being felt immediately throughout society and could undermine community resiliency during a 12+ month "war on Covid". I do have some optimism here that action will be taken quickly 13/141 reply 0 retweets 0 likesShow this thread
Reason #8 Optimism. I love Americans for their optimism. American optimism will be an asset as we all rebound from this thing, but it does tend to slow down the initial response when hours and days make a difference. "It couldn't happen here" makes people slow to catch on. 14/14
-
-
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.