Is it any wonder Covid is seen as a hidden agenda
The UK media has three types of report, one that the new variant is not that much of a threat, another is that it is serious threat, other reports say we don't actually know yet
Maybe the media need to hold off reporting, until they can get some consistent facts.
@zleap When the media or government DOES "hold off reporting, until they can get some consistent facts" they get accused of hiding the truth and indecisiveness.
Most of the problems seem to be the info equivalent of a "run on the banks", (or in the UK, government corruption.)
What I know for sure: My second covid infection, (this month) was hardly anything thanks to having 2x vaccine compared with how bad I felt for a month, during my 1st covid back in early 2020.
@isobel The government can't win, but they need to get the right balance so the right information is given out.
Either that or we need better education so we can make science papers more available so people can make their own minds up
@zleap I am hugely disappointed by the current UK government, but I keep a journal and looking back to the end of 2019 and early 2020 my entries show that I wouldn't have been much better at communicating, because there is such a large variation in science literacy amongst the population. (So I fully agree that more and better education is required, but I disagree with the "make their own minds up" because that is expecting average, (and below average) people to be experts on medical topics.
@isobel Well yes i agree there. But maybe not understand science papers but be able to do own research and find proper reliable information.
As for evidence but understand how to ask yourself the right questions.
@zleap I used to think that exactly! (When I was only doing anthropology.) Then I started doing the practical part of sociology and was horrified that most people don't want to learn and enjoy their ignorance. (Which also explains football supporters ;-) )
This is why I want to support the campaigns from people like Sense about science.
https://senseaboutscience.org/
https://askforevidence.org/index
I am sure platforms such as Facebook just make the issue worse, people don't want to, or are just too lazy to look things up properly, result is just mis information spreading around about all sorts of things, usually this defies even common sense,
@zleap ooh that looks interesting. (Thank you for the link.)
You no longer have to be "sure" that facebook is evil - we have documented proof that they know that their platforms, (especially instagram) are detrimental to the mental health of the people that create accounts on their sites.
#deletefacebook #deleteWhatsApp #deleteInstagram
@isobel indeed hence the first part of my blog post here
https://personaljournal.ca/paulsutton/facebook-manipulated-689-003-users-emotions-for-science
I am trying make a strong point in that you can't be committed to safeguarding and keeping people safe while at the same time support the use of a platform that is causing more harm than good.
At least I am prepared to say that Fediverse isn't perfect. It isn't, nothing will be, but so why pretend it is the perfect solution.
@zleap I don't know anyone that is pretending that Fediverse is perfect. (I had some ignorant neo-nazi tease me about "having pronouns" today. Educating them isn't my job.) But the democracy of the Fediverse is a huge improvement over Facebook. (And if we can improve things then we probably should.)
