Thread by @_ppmv

We shared pandemic information in high frequency and intensity. Governments and even media shared less. Why?

Because the alternative to international cooperation in the face of a highly transmissible, mutating virus, is isolation.

thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/…
thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/…

I may reach 50,000 people; government and media millions. Not all need all information (twitter is disinformation AND science-heavy, hence the schizophrenic vibe here)

Yet even basic warnings don't reach "the public" (I like the Chinese term, 老百姓）

Eg

https://twitter.com/brownecfm/status/1611325363065589760

To put it positively, we have a real challenge ahead.

Most people assume "things will balance out": That's not how complex systems work. They can decompensate sans warning after accumulating abuse for years. We all are complex NL adaptive systems! Jim White makes this point nicely via his (baby) brother here,

https://twitter.com/_ppmv/status/1300794056239460359

5. Are you waiting to hear how this will end?

I wish I knew! We can analyze past error. We can learn from data, reconstruct or model alternate realities. I can tell you what I think our best shot is.

Here it is: no more no less than a good, honest chance

https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1611344377569476614

Once again, for effect.

https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1611353701976887296

6. Here The Economist nails it. It's possible to explain it well.

(The same The Economist opposed #ZeroCovid but never explained the real alternatives.) We can explain well and end the pandemic.

I think we should heed the hard-earned lessons of the past.

https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1611404498517348352

7. I don't usually hashtag people into threads, but @SocioAnalytic deserves a shoutout for making these points (in his own, critical way) most diligently and perceptively.

@SocioAnalytic 8. "Viral pandemics are no time to play politics."

If this sounds too simple, rethink. Climate is profound precisely because it is simple. As are many things in life.

This question affects all our lives - like climate, but faster.

https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1611358226594893825

@SocioAnalytic 9. @GhoshAmitav 2016 taught us to see in climate change the Unthinkable, as well as in SARS. What does it mean?

It's white noise to most. As @AndriMagnason says, we don't see greater-than-human forces well; it's easier to have opinions on smaller matters.

https://twitter.com/_ppmv/status/1571722793774874625

@SocioAnalytic @GhoshAmitav @AndriMagnason 10. How do we visualize the Unthinkable?

Here a 2017/2018 draft, showing how we wrestled with ideas that led nowhere. Climate stubbornly remained white noise despite our efforts.

SARS is personal, intimate, fearsome; a different greater-than-human force.

https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1611407123350421504

@SocioAnalytic @GhoshAmitav @AndriMagnason 11. When someone says, "no political party, but policymakers in all parties worldwide abandoned public health," who are they: scientist, public health officer, conspiracy crack?

Some always ask whom to trust, what to read? - I can't make that choice for you. Think about it well.

@SocioAnalytic @GhoshAmitav @AndriMagnason 12. What language does complexity speak, asks @pkhaff?

I think it speaks climate, I think it speaks public health, and probably many more languages. Try to learn them well if you feel this is what is to be done now.

I think it may be wise.

https://twitter.com/pkhaff/status/1415835877755039746