You know what else causes unnecessary harm to science, public trust and health policy? Repeated and condescending lies and gas-lighting from those in charge.
"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."
Not even close.
Its harder for Gov to keep a secret than it is for a facebook group to maintain a lie.
much much harder.
And there are various degrees of accountability to every level of a Gov. Not as much as I'd like and not as reliable as i'd like it to be, but its there.
there is zero, zilch, no accountability for facebook liars.
What pisses me off most about this is that now it's so much easier for a conspiracy theorist to believe in government cover-ups of big, important things. One of my family members is way into all this stuff, and next time I tell him cancer isn't cured because how would all the experts across the globe all simultaneously keep that a secret--he's gonna point at this.
People can be stupid and believe really crazy ideas, but let's not have governments and experts lying to the people they represent.
Pair that with the disinformation coming from once trusted institutions, e.g.: 5 vs 10 day quarantine, sending health care workers to work while still positive.
It's no wonder people are giving more credence to these fringe groups. The government has nobody to blame but itself for such poor messaging.
on one hand The Gov and bureaucracies in general have ham-fisted the response. This surprises no one really. we all know that Governments can be awful at these sorts of things.
yet somehow they have masterminded the development and release of a contagious bio weapon and done it in damn near perfected secrecy?
How can someone hold both those statements with equal weight in their minds at the same time.
does. not. compute.
It's doable, and has been done.
And is being done.