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There's so much to unpack here, so I'm going to have a bit of a crack at it in a twitter thread.
I think the endless debate about masks is a symptom of a whole heap of COVID-induced but also more secular trends all coming together in a giant pandemic-flavoured mess.
I think the endless debate about masks is a symptom of a whole heap of COVID-induced but also more secular trends all coming together in a giant pandemic-flavoured mess.
First up, pandemics are scary. There's lots of things from the Sandman model of risk communication that tilts them towards being high outrage.
- limited personal agency
- unseeable
- perceived as being imposed from outside
- "unnatural" (I dispute this)
- novel
- limited personal agency
- unseeable
- perceived as being imposed from outside
- "unnatural" (I dispute this)
- novel
This means that people are already wound up pretty tightly, and we know that this makes it even more difficult for people to process complex information properly.
1/. Some people on Twitter & in the media yesterday here and in the USA saying that Governments should be taking “draconian” measures because it is only a few cases and it is just bad flu.
It isn’t flu at all.
Italy
On 2/2/20 : 2 cases. No deaths
7/7/20: 3 cases 3 deaths
It isn’t flu at all.
Italy
On 2/2/20 : 2 cases. No deaths
7/7/20: 3 cases 3 deaths
2/. It stayed that way until the 19th February when slowly at first but then gradually the numbers started to climb with a lot of people hospitalised.
That was just 2.5 weeks ago.
That was just 2.5 weeks ago.
We are just 5 days into March.
At 10 am 1st March (WHO data). Italy had 1129 cases and 29 deaths (and a lot of very sick people in hospital). This despite closing down towns, many public spaces
In 11 days
Cases had increased 376 fold
Deaths had increased 10 fold
At 10 am 1st March (WHO data). Italy had 1129 cases and 29 deaths (and a lot of very sick people in hospital). This despite closing down towns, many public spaces
In 11 days
Cases had increased 376 fold
Deaths had increased 10 fold
