Just putting this out there, but what if the real virus we face is the virus itself?
Infectious disease outbreaks are the reductio ad absurdum of cognitive-hygiene galaxybrain. No amount of “the real contagion is stigma/fear/disinformation” takecraft will change the fact that real human beings are dying.
This isn’t some rando take writer. It’s the head of the WHO! This is the same org that downplayed Ebola threat and weakened protective measures so as not to create fear and stigma. The risk of repeating this “real contagion is stigma” nonsense is serious. thenewatlantis.com/publications/t…
Stigma is a real thing in outbreaks. But I’ve spent a lot of time reading epidemiology literature, and nobody who raises this issue ever even bothers to quantify or offer scale. They’re only interested in having a blank check to tut-tut while, literally, people are dying.
Posting this again: "Ordinary skepticism that would have revealed obvious holes in CDC and WHO claims was cast as bigotry....Amid the dazzling array of interpretations we assigned to Ebola, there was too little room for it to be an actual disease."
commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-p…
commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-p…
