Health and Sanity category archive
Natural Selection 0
Jim Wright warns that, if, against all the indications of science and experience, persons choose to tempt fate, fate just might choose to succumb to the temptation.
She Did Her Own Research on the Disinformation Superhighway 0
In a long article which I stumbled across at Boston.com, New York Times reporter Sabrina Tavernise takes a look at the furor over mask and vaccination mandates, lockdowns, and other measures intended to stem the spread of the pandemic. She talked with a number of researchers who suggest that much larger cultural forces are feeding the conflict. Given that we are facing wave number [mumble] of infections even as a large portion of the populace seems to embrace Typhoid Mary as a role model, the whole piece is worth a read.
What particularly caught my eye, though, was a snapshot of what happens when persons who don’t know how to do research (who don’t know, for example, how to vet sources, interpret data, or differentiate between fact and opinion) “do their own research” on the disinformation superhighway (emphasis added):
The more she researched online, the more it seemed that there was something bigger going on. She said she came to the conclusion that the government was misleading Americans — for whose benefit, she could not tell. Maybe drug companies. Maybe politicians. Whatever the case, it made her feel like the people in charge saw her — and the whole country of people like her — as easy to take advantage of.
Vaccine Nation 0
Michael in Norfolk has a question.
Vaccine Nation, Dis Coarse Discourse Dept. 0
The AP’s John Rady takes an in-depth look at the pandemic and vaccine hesitancy in one West Virginia community. He reports that medical staff are frazzled by long hours, overloaded wards, and efforts to combat the flood of traffic on the disinformation superhighway. Here’s a bit:
“In fact, I think sometimes the media hurts things because people are so dug in politically,” Bentz said in his office recently. “Instead of making a rational decision, they feel like they’ve got to stand on some principle. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. And unfortunately I think there’s just not the trust that we have in our government, in the media, for people to believe it.”
Freedom of Screech 0
the writer of a letter to the editor of the Portland Press-Herald draws a distinction. Here’s a bit of the missive:
I don’t know whether he as an ironclad legal case–the case law is ambiguous–but methinks he has an ironclad moral case.
All the News that Fits 0
Fox News’s Jesse Watters wants to shoot the messenger.
Vaccine Nation 0
In the midst of a larger article about addressing parents’ concerns about getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19, Jaime Sidani, Beth Hoffman, and Maya Ragavan spotlight the role of “social” media in perpetuating ignorance and lies. A snippet (emphasis added):
One more time, “social” media isn’t.
Facebook Frolics 0
Snopes offers some hints for spotting Facebook phonies. Here’s one:
Follow the link for more and remember, “social” media isn’t.
The Disinformation Superhighway 0
The Roanoke Times carries a story about how anti-vaxxers propagate propaganda manufactured out the whole cloth via the internet and “social” media.
Trying to excerpt or summarize it will not do it justice. Just follow the link.
Vaccine Nation 0
Stuart Blume offers thorough look at the concept of “herd immunity.” Methinks that it is a worthwhile read in these viral times. A nugget:
On the whole, no. In one study, for example, participants reported that their personal decisions were unaffected by whether people around them were vaccinated or not. Even among those who said they were influenced by their social network, few referred to herd immunity specifically. Some people recognized that childhood immunization had indirect benefits to the community. Nevertheless, they thought about immunizing their own children in terms of what they saw as their child’s benefit.
I must say that, when I was eagerly anticipated getting vaccinated against COVID, I was thinking primarily of my own safety and that of those around me, but I was also thinking of the society as a whole. Perhaps that’s because I’m old enough to remember pictures of little children (my age at the time) in iron lungs because of polio and how, once Dr. Salk and then Dr. Sabin perfected their vaccines, those pictures (and polio) went away.
I saw with my own eyes dramatic proof of the effectiveness of vaccines, and my mind goggles at portion of our populace which denies the evidence of things seen.