One of the most fascinating dynamics of this pandemic is the Twitter/media/pundit feedback cycle. (This was documented before for other topics, too.) Now, with many top scientists not as active, if at all, on Twitter—pandemic keeps them busy—it’s gotten even more interesting.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m active here so not saying it’s wrong to be. But the sampling here is clearly very lopsided. But it’s easy to look only here and gain impressions that look solid but aren’t necessarily so if you do the legwork—which is getting harder, given state of media.
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But it’s a feedback cycle! Media people quote the most accessible people who are sometimes, in fact, a group, which then gets represented as what we know and then the busy scientists not on here may decide that’s not a hill to die on—or not even notice. They’re not even asked.
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Finally lots of people have stopped commenting here at all because it’s so unpleasant. Pile-ons, accusations... I think retrospectively we are going to find all this is why so many things are so confusing on the surface. More so then the reality. Twitter isn’t a good source.
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Replying to @zeynep
Counterpoint: Anyone following Covid on Twitter knew that
#COVIDisAirborne long before it was reported in major media or declared by the WHO or CDC.1 reply 1 retweet 15 likes
Of course, there’s an enormous amount of value but what I say is *also* true. Interestingly, this is a very similar dynamic we saw with social movements before. I literally have chapters on this in my book. Well-documented and complex dynamic.
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