Thread by @MamaToronto

Why COVID-19 gaslighting by politicians is so dangerous for democracy

May 4, 2022

theconversation.com/why-covid-19-g…

“After 2 yrs of acknowledging the dangers of #COVID19, something eerily similar has happened with public health policy across the western world.”

“Fed & muni govts in NA, Eur & Aus have begun lifting basic protections like 💉 & #maskmandate, winding down public testing, ending contact tracing & withholding critical PH data, like case counts, hospitalization numbers, wastewater results & even the size of local outbreaks.”

“Pandemic management has been transformed from a PH problem to an individual one.”

“The now-quaint 2020 slogan “We’re all in this together” has since been replaced with the dire prescription — “Assess your own risk.” Political leaders have reversed course, urging their constituents to “learn to live with COVID.””

“The dismantling of pandemic infrastructure, however, suggests that those constituents must learn to live instead as if #COVID19 no longer exists.”

“By removing basic protections that enabled us to survive the pandemic for the last 2 yrs, PH policy has effectively been rewritten in light of the desires, demands and delusions of anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers & #COVID19 denialists.”

“Fiction vs. reality

Western politicians & PH officials have managed to craft a fictional universe in which we have reached endemicity, where infection is now “mild”…

Fiction vs. reality (cont)

…& getting “milder” by the variant, where #COVID19 is “like the flu,” where mass infection builds a “wall of immunity” & where voluntary 💉 alone is our ticket out of the pandemic.”

“This sunny picture has numerous problems.
First, not only are we nowhere near endemicity, there would be nothing to celebrate about it if we were.
Second, the glib talk of mild infection overlooks #COVID19 ‘s frightening vascular & neurological effects.”

“Those infected by it are at increased risk of serious heart complications, including inflammation, acute coronary artery disease & cardiac arrest. Even mild cases can lead to changes in brain structure.”

“According to one recent meta-analysis, 43% of #COVID19 survivors experienced symptoms of what’s known as #LongCovid, signalling a coming nightmare for PH, the eco & ed. For a supposedly mild disease, #COVID19 notably led to hospital collapse in both the UK & Canada in Apr 2022.”

“Public gaslighting

Yet none of these grim realities are acknowledged by politicians who insist that we “just move forward” and “get on with our lives,” and who repeat the “freedom convoy” talking point that we need not be “afraid.””

“There’s a vast chasm between the #COVID19 fictions of politicians & the realities of hospital wards & #LongCovid clinics.”

“The downplaying, dismissal & denial of these realities amnt to public gaslighting, a reckless political manoeuvre with unsettling implications for the future of Western democracies.”

“As it turns out, we are still living in a post-truth world. But this time, it’s not Donald Trump who’s distorting reality.”

“Instead it’s fed & municipal govts across the pol spectrum gaslighting their citizens & constituents, denying the reality & severity of a pandemic that, once again, is tearing through our communities at frightening speed, driven by a highly contagious & rapidly evolving virus.””

“Undermining democracy

A functioning democracy requires some common ground upon which its citizens can agree. #COVID19 gaslighting erodes that common ground. It erodes trust in govt & PH, as well as institutions, like school boards, that follow their cue.”

“It undermines the pub authority of med & biomed sci to guide us through the pandemic. Just as climate change…we now increasingly hear about “both sides” of #COVID19 When politicians encourage us to “move on,” COVID denialism becomes a respectable opinion.”

“Despite our habit of entertaining “both sides” of many issues, some things just aren’t a matter of political opinion: whether Trump won the 2020 election, whether climate change is real and whether we’re still in a pandemic.”

“Unfortunately, western political leaders & some PH officials have decided to indulge the worst kind of individualist impulse: the desire to choose your own reality, including the fantasy that the pandemic is over.”

“Erosion of trust

Perhaps most tragically, #COVID19 gaslighting erodes our trust in each other. It feeds our mutual suspicion, paranoia, hostility & division.”

“When infection risk is intrinsically social, the promotion of noxious ideological concepts like “individual choice” & “assessing your own risk” only encourages us to blame each other in the event of an outbreak.”

“PH policy modelled on The Hunger Games is a recipe for confusion & chaos.”

#COVID19 gaslighting will only deepen our existing social divisions & exacerbate our culture wars, further eroding our already fragile democracies.”

“As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, surprise, disappoint & frustrate us at every turn, COVID-19 gaslighting will drive citizens deeper into isolated & self-enclosed silos, online & off-line.”

“It will further encourage the violent trolling of health-care workers & scientists, & feed dangerously reactionary politics. Extremism is the only possible beneficiary of this erosion of public trust.”