Giving a lecture at @NYUStern tonight and students were asked to submit questions. A theme has emerged: "How do you get people who are emotionally exhausted by coronavirus to take precautions seriously?"
A few thoughts: 1/
A few thoughts: 1/
If you really want to engage someone, you have to know their point of view. For me, this means going down some truly gnarly rabbit holes of misinformation. (I know the case against masks inside and out). Occasionally, I hit on something interesting. This happened the other day...
...when a staff writer from the @NewYorker pushed me on the origins of coronavirus. I've trapped bats with some of the scientists featured in "Spillover" by @DavidQuammen and for most of this year, I have been of the opinion that #coronavirus leapt from animal to man.
After the interview, I did some digging & discovered how porous my spillover argument really was. There's more than a two-decade evolutionary gap between the closest bat virus and SARS-CoV-2. We've focused on bats and civets, but the true animal reservoir remains a mystery.
A top scientist, David Relman, summarized the problem: "We need to identify the immediate parent(s) of SARS-CoV-2, and they’re missing." He's called for an investigation to determine what really happened: Spillover? Lab accident? Something intentional? The truth is we don't know.
You can find his argument, and why the spillover explanation doesn't quite work, here: pnas.org/content/117/47…
I haven't become a conspiracy theorist (yet!) but I am mostly grateful for those who push me on my beliefs. I answer the origin story differently now.
The challenge for these students, and for all of us, is to figure out what challenges are worthy of our attention.
The challenge for these students, and for all of us, is to figure out what challenges are worthy of our attention.
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