Not at all irrational to make sweeping claims from a single question on a single survey. I say it's a sign of our national irrationality that so much weight is given to pundits who are uncareful about the conclusions they draw from limited data.
https://twitter.com/DLeonhardt/status/1485992723492524034
Obviously there's some psychological stuff going on around covid and risk, but like all things, it's complicated. The thirst of pundits like Leonhardt to drive a narrative based on limited data is unhelpful in the extreme.
Declaring that you yourself are able to look at things rationally is not actually evidence that you are looking at things rationally.
I'm vaxxed and boosted and I would answer "somewhat worried" not because I fear bad health outcomes, but because unlike David Leonhardt, I'm a self-employed writer and a medium bad flu might take me out for a week, meaning I can't deliver the words that allow me to get paid.
The Leonhardts of the world cannot imagine people who may be worried not because they think covid is going to kill them but because even a "mild" course would be more than an inconvenience as it would be for him.
Fortunately, I have enough cushion to survive a week where I don't meet my freelance obligations, but can @DLeonhardt imagine why I might be worried about getting covid if I could work for two weeks and it cost him two weeks salary? Wouldn't that be a bummer?
The lack of imagination and insight about the complexities of the lives people lead and what and why they might be worried about something is hardly rational. It's a form of deliberate ignorance.
Not sure why people who write from data like @DLeonhardt aren't more circumspect about the limits of data. I learned my lessons working as an actual researcher, rather than a pundit, so maybe that's it. I knew there was often something unknown lurking underneath.
I'm sorry, this is horrible analysis. Because different people in different circumstances view the consequences of illness differently does not mean they lack objectivity. Pundit, heal thyself!
https://twitter.com/DLeonhardt/status/1485994686305255429
The metric for rationality and worries about getting covid is not "worry," when you have no idea what is underneath that worry. This is massive over interpretation of the available data.
In my experience the sharpest people who work from data are the folks who look at the results and find the next question, which in this case is, "What are people worried about when it comes to getting covid?" Why isn't @DLeonhardt interested in that question?
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