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Comment by autoexec | Hacker News Reader

We watched it live in 2020 and we failed so hard that this is probably the worst time for any new pandemic, especially one that can be described as being in any way "flu like". We've learned from experience that no matter how many people start dying, huge parts of the population will not take it seriously and that governments will only care about keeping the workers busy making money for their employers even while those employers refuse to provide them with PPE or sick time. Nobody trusts the CDC as it is, and that will only get worse with the coming administration.

I'm just hoping that this isn't anything new, and that it doesn't spread very far.

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I disagree about trusting the CDC, I have no reason not to trust them. They'll do their best job to understand threats, avoid making confusing statements. But if there is a threat and people are dying in hospitals in large numbers without much information, they'll do their best to make health safety precautions, but they will probably make some mistakes. This is pretty common in science too.

The CDC never had the trust of many people to start with, but their repeated failures at communication didn't do them any favors. They also repeatedly allowed themselves to be bullied and manipulated. For example, they changed the recommendation to stay home 5 days after testing positive, but that change wasn't based on any new evidence that would contradict their old recommendation.

Cause the "experts" did such a good job last time.

I learned from the last pandemic that the so called "experts" were in fact incompetent at best and power tripping political ideologues at worst. It was crazy watching the last 100 years of germ theory and infectious disease get thrown out and start over from scratch

1. The virus isnt real it's a conservative conspiracy

2. The virus is real but isnt spreading human to human (it obviously was at this point)

    Bonus: Thinking the virus came from a lab doing research on that exact virus in proximity to the first cases was a conservative conspiracy instead of an obvious first guess

3. The virus is spreading human to human but not through the air (it obviously was highly probable given respiratory symptoms)

4. Masks dont work

5. Masks do work

6. Masks do work and you should always wear outside your house but not needed at BLM protests

7. The social distancing rules had zero scientific backing

this sounds exactly like the scientific discovery(ies) of something unknown. you are scrambling in this case to figure things out and you want to do it as fast as possible because you know - the government has decided to lock everyone up. so you go about trying to figure it out. but science is not dogma, if you first believed that masks do work and then get a proof that they don't after enough people start wearing them and you perhaps see that that shows otherwise, you pivot. this is exactly what you want, you don't want "experts" to sit and go "shit, we told everyone to wear masks, we now have this new data which shows limited utility but shit we can't say we were wrong, lets have everyone keep wearing masks... maybe even double-down and say you should wear masks alone in the shower cause virus might be in the water too..."

We did not have new data on masks when the messaging on masks changed. The science said masks do not protect you and that is why experts initially said so. Then, they figured that this is not what people wanted to hear. People wanted to be told what to do to be safe and would not take “we do not know” as an answer. Politicians latched on this, the media latched on to this, and somehow it became a partisan issue. The path of least resistance was to just shut up, wear a mask and wait for the hysteria to subside.

Yes, good points. Politicians and the public and all of us can have trouble when it's a rush situation with deadly consequences and the experts make their best prognosis based on previous times in some part - then they revise best practices as they gain knowledge.

This happens all the time but it's not usually so visibly combined with conspiracy theories about controlling people and all that kind of crazy stuff. America is so influenced by foolish postings on social media and popular, but not fact-based TV networks.

There was the realization that covid spread in a different way than the flu and the discovery of things spreading through the air was a bit surprising and unexpected, compare with traditional flu issues.

> and somehow it became a partisan issue.

this wasn't a partisan issue in the beginning. it only became a partisan issue when 50% of the population started getting the "scientific information about efficacy of wearing masks" via Mary from Pennsylvania on "X"

same with the vaccines. the loudest pro-vaccine politicians (e.g. DeSantis) after seeing posts on "X" from our PA/MT/MO experts decided it would be super beneficial to their political career to make that a partisan issue as well :)

>it only became a partisan issue when 50% of the population started getting the "scientific information about efficacy of wearing masks" via Mary from Pennsylvania on "X"

Really? Only then? No partisan aspect to official narratives about masks and virus origin being practically imposed upon the public via all narrative-sympathetic media and social media channels?

No partisan aspect to the blatant hypocrisy of BLM protests being no problem in terms of mass gatherings, while any other type of mass grouping was considered wrong, and something only done by ignorant covid-deniers?

Not to even mention the whole "don't use masks you selfish pig, no wait! use masks, yes, use them you ignorant bumpkin!" debacle...

I guess none of these wonderfully varied and acrobatic narratives in the least bit created good reason to make large numbers of people start mistrusting the hell out of a whole range of politicians and media personalities.

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