#musk #twitter #covid19 #misinformation #truthbetold
Musk ends a policy that Twitter formerly used to remove COVID-19 information that it considered misleading.
Oh my God, what are we going to do? You mean Twitter users are going to have to think for themselves?
***An inclusive, Academic Freedom, instance***
You mean lies like these...
"There is a shortage of respirators in the Strategic National Stockpile, so everyone has to wear cloth masks instead."
"You don't need to wear a mask if you've been vaccinated."
"When you meet with your relatives this Thanksgiving (2022), just make sure you wash your hands before you hug and kiss them."
"The vaccine is 92% effective."
"The vaccine is the best method to fight COVID-19."
"China's zero COVID-19 policy isn't working."
and on and on...
Yes, those came from the COVID-19 task force or other expert physicians, spoken to the American public.
@Pat
I think there has to be some filters. And they have to be GOOD filters. And yes, they are always flawed, and if they are bad enough can even be worse than nothing.
About the examples you give: the knowledge about Covid has changed over time. Half of those examples were what we knew at a time, and then that knowledge was corrected; that's science at work when something is really new and nothing has really been checked. Some of them were repeated for a long time after debunked, shame on those who didn't keep things up to date.
Others are at best grossly oversimplified, if not nonsense, as is the case of the third one. Or depend on how you define some terms, as in "effective": if you define "effective" as "92% of people which were to end dead, won't", 92% may be true. If you define it as "won't catch and spread it", well, that's entirely another matter. Regrettably, most people seems to worry only about the first one.
All anti-COVID measures are security measures, and, as any security measure, are not 100% effective. Blank statements as "If you do that, you are 100% safe" are always false. Depends on risk and personal circumstances. But they are exactly the kind of statements most of people screams for. So doctors, IT security, engineers and locksmiths are always forced to say "X is 100% secure", knowing that's childish, it may be 90%, 99% secure at most. It is a lie? Strictly speaking, yeah. But most of people won't hire a locksmith who says his locks are secure only if the burglar doesn't know how to open it. I always hated when clients ask "Is it 100% secure?", because they are asking, begging for a lie. And I am forced to give it. The real question should be "Is it safe enough to meet my needs?".
Okay, here's more context on these...
"There is a shortage of respirators in the Strategic National Stockpile, so everyone has to wear cloth masks instead."
- This statement was made by the CDC at the beginning of the epidemic in the US. The CDC manages the SNS. They know exactly how many respirators are in there. They flat-out lied when they said that there weren't enough.
If just 40% of the population had worn N95 respirators at the beginning of the pandemic, the epidemic would not have taken hold in the US. That's a fact.
"You don't need to wear a mask if you've been vaccinated."
- This was the exact advice from the CDC after the vaccines rolled out to the general public. If they knew that the 92% number was bogus and the vaccines didn't stop the spread of the virus, why would they tell people to take off their masks and cause more spread? Because they lied. They obviously wanted the pandemic to continue.
"When you meet with your relatives this Thanksgiving (2022), just make sure you wash your hands before you hug and kiss them."
- This was the advice from a physician on one of the major networks (NBC I think) giving advice to people just prior to this Thanksgiving.
"The vaccine is 92% effective."
- The effectiveness of every vaccine prior to the COVID-19 pandemic has been specified as a percentage of symptomatic illness. Now suddenly they change it and spec it based on hospitalization/deaths without mentioning that fact when they release the 92% number. They intentionally mislead Americans.
"The vaccine is the best method to fight COVID-19."
- That's the language they used. What does "best" mean? Best for Pfizer's stock price?
The most effective method to prevent the infection and spread of COVID-19 is a properly worn respirator. That's a fact. But I've never heard anyone from the CDC mention that fact. Ever.
"China's zero COVID-19 policy isn't working."
- Dr. Ashish Jha, the head of the WH COVID-19 Response Team said this on ABC's This Week program on Sunday. China has less than 1% of the death rate from the pandemic than the US has. The Zero Covid policy works at preventing unnecessary illness and death. Dr. Jha lied.
Those aren't misstatements or statements made with incomplete information or evolving scientific data. They are lies. The people making them knew they were false when they made them.
Regarding "filters" on Twitter, who decides what to filter? I suspect it was the biggest advertisers on the platform who called the shots as to what was "filtered".
The beauty of propaganda of how praying on people’s emotions to potentially help their sanity.
Although lies, it could be questioned if the truth would have been just as effective or potentially even worse. Living in the constant state of fear or uncertainty can take a toll on ones immune system, thereby potentially adding more stress to the already crippling health system.
Definitely would agree that filtering messages are bad, though can also see the concern that opinions become facts.
It’s probably more a philosophical or ethical question of which way of ruling is best to keep the nation/region flourishing.
@Pat
Avoiding that outright lies end up being the only information some people receives about matters of life and death is critically important. We can't expect everybody to have a solid understanding of science, same as we can't expect them knowing about any other aspect of human knowledge. Some can't, some don't like, some simply won't. And they should not have to pay for it with their lives.