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Hello! How’s it going? I hope you’ve been feeling better lately <3
Anyway, here’s our thread for discussing Covid And Society, or just health and society in general I guess. (Anyone else is welcome to chip in as well, of course:) )
I guess I’ll start by saying that I think the general ignorance about Covid is just part of a larger issue in our society, which is that health isn’t really valued as much as it should be. The United States has kind of had a problem with chronic illness for a long time – cancer, diabetes, all those things. I think the acceptance of illness is what’s led to the way in which people evade the hard truths about Covid and flus and such. I wonder if I could write an opinion piece about that for the school newspaper. It often has thought-provoking articles, so maybe it would be a good place to start.
What are your thoughts?
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Oh great thanks for making this – i’ve been… not even that busy
XDyour thought is a good one – you’re very right. The amount of health misinformation out there fascinates me. I saw an article from a major magazine about “health trends of 2025”. why are there health trends?! Medical knowledge changes, but not that quickly. and even when it’s a good idea it was marketed in a bad way – like “fiber maxxing”. Americans by all means need to eat more fiber; basically none of us get enough. But the way that’s phrased makes it sound like “adding extra supplements to unhealthy things” or such. not dissimilar to how protein is at the moment. which never fails to amaze me, especially because people already get WAY more than they need on average. health aside bc i’d have to link studies and sources and have a long paragraph to feel justified posting about that (there’s just too much misinformation and i don’t want to add to it), it’s led to a dependence on meat, dairy, and eggs that is horrifying due to climate change alone, even without the animal side – and even worse, people who are scared to eat vegetables because they have carbs. Like, “sweet potatoes are basically sugar!” no…
or take the “body positivity” movement. i would be fine with it if it was only trying to reduce a stigma against being overweight (though not the way it goes about it). but any movement that essentially only links studies that actively disagree with them if you actually read the study (and rarely links studies at all) is not one i can support. let alone one that actively promotes a lifestyle that is one of the leading causes of death around the world, even in countries that also have food insecurity. you get people who are struggling with severe health issues but think that losing weight is impossible, or even more unhealthy than the current option. the whole thing is awful. people are made to think that it’s the scientific option, and a concerning amount of doctors are okay with it, but if you follow links back, there’s just – nothing. blog posts. it’s even worse than it sounds.
also, i think the kind of illness that has become mainstream depends. ironically cancer and type 2 diabetes are probably far more dangerous than certain other things that are probably less accepted. of course some cases of both are unavoidable, and some cases of more unavoidable things are worsened by the same factors. but for instance if you have a long-term disability that means you can’t work or live alone, there’s really not a ton of support. even something like autism (which, at the risk of making it sound like lower level 1 people are not really autistic, has been severely watered down recently – yes, some people may be able to accommodate themselves but far from all. and it frustrates me that they deny any possibility that it could actually be disabling, and mostly shut down anyone who tries to argue otherwise, especially if they’re a parent. some say they’re for a community with all parts of the spectrum but then they do the opposite and often end up stigmatizing things further because “i don’t do this! I’m autistic, not stupid!” yes that legitimate phrasing has come up. for very common traits.) or that sort of thing, the kind where it’s more immediately noticeable and impacts your daily life more… it’s hard to get support past a certain age (i aged out of ot and similar (therapies) around 15, soon after i began needing it way more, but multiple referrals haven’t worked because you can only get adult ot now, and that works on different things and is boring), people either assume you’re basically thoughtless or on the other hand think you’re just being confusing and weird and trying to be difficult or just don’t know how to interact or how to deal with you, etc, etc. i don’t know where my thoughts are going and autism isn’t technically a medical disability in the same way, but probably a lot that are get treated in the same way. (for the record: i’m very good at typing my thoughts out, especially in long-form, but struggle a lot more irl. actually i joined a more in-real-time forum (it’s a social media platform) and besides the fact that it seems mindless and pointless (it seems like half of it is just “statement” and then variations on “yeah” and “that’s odd/funny”) i am very bad at it. oh or my other weird health issues that make no sense and mostly contradict each other, though those are less immediately noticeable unless you count that i use a specialized walker, but tbh that’s almost a sensory issue in a way. and the mask.
I think it’s more of a normalization of things that cause ill health – like how people make it sound like if food is healthy it inherently is gross. (there’s also an attitude that you never have any control over anything that i’ve noticed that is unhelpful and mostly terrifying. or, “i can’t do this perfectly so i won’t do it at all”. It’s tiring. there’s very often something you can do to make a little bit of a difference, and we need everyone doing that, which will make a bigger difference than a few people doing everything perfectly. that’s not the whole rant but it’s irrelevant atm)
newspaper is a very good thought. (i’m actually working on a zine (like a magazine) to start once i get to college for viola. which i think will happen. i’ll still be with my parents so in effect nothing will change and really there’s no point to any of it. but not getting into all that. it’s about a lot of things, i could go into it if you’d like; it’s largely irrelevant to this but not entirely either, as i could put the article in that magazine. I would credit you as Poinsettia, of course.)
i had thoughts at one point but we’ll start here. i have no idea if any of this is coherent but posts
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okay, going through our chat now:
do you think people are aware of long covid or just think it won’t affect them? one doctor said i might have long covid but i’m doubtful personally. also because my mom made it sound like the biggest issue was fatigue, whereas really, the big issue was that i was acutely ill for all of that time, so of course i was fatigued. i do probably have less stamina than the average person but not really like that.
or what about how people go to work or even out places for fun when they’re sick, without any sort of mask or protection? with work i can be sympathetic, especially in the case that there isn’t much of a choice, but there should still be a mask…
i don’t think it’s particularly normal still to wear a mask. Actually one of the librarians at one of the libraries wears a mask, and I’m very grateful to them. They seem like they’re probably trans or LGBT in some way (hence why i’m using they/them, though i think most likely they use he/him), and mask wearing seems to be more common in that sort of person. I think it’s just the general political views that tend to go along with it (it’s kind of hard to put your trust in a viewpoint that tends to want to get rid of you…) that and someone who i know is immunodeficient. but otherwise almost never.
Maybe a good place to start would be your experience with Long COVID. i could also try to think about me, but i’m not entirely sure what to say…
A few optional questions or places to start: how has Long COVID impacted your life? What are some negative things about it? Have you had to pause or take any breaks because of it, or struggled to do things you love, or had to adjust things in your life? what about treatment? I’m curious about the reception doctors have towards it because any other sort of long reaction after any infection of any kind seems to be met with extreme skepticism. Preliminary research suggests it usually gets better with time; is this accurate for you? If you wear a mask, what reactions have you gotten?
the “but it’s not COVID!” thing really annoys me. Maybe it’s not COVID but if you have it, shortly, so will I…
I’ll summarize our conversation in the next comment.
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Here are the points that we covered. We can add more in comments to this comment, so that we have a good list of brainstormed ideas. Beginning:
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COVID should have taught us things but people pretend it’s over
even with my preventive measures and medical treatment i still get sick
There are often people out coughing and blowing their nose (ofc some people have asthma or similar, but it’s pretty clear when they’re sick)
due to this I have struggled to keep up with my viola playing and other things
someone online said “it makes sense if you’re immmunodeficient but otherwise why would you isolate yourself by wearing a mask?” but if you’re immunodeficient wearing a mask does very little because everyone else is still going around coughing on you
“just a cold” can still cause annoying or even serious complications; COVID is not all that can make you sick
People have largely decided not to talk about it (but they mention getting it from time to time so they must know it’s still around? How many people die from it still?)
why not prioritize your health?
healthy people can get severely ill from COVID as well (regardless, lots of people are not healthy)
some people at your school still wear face masks, but let’s see how long it lasts… (note: maybe you could talk to them? idk. maybe they’d even have some thoughts if you interviewed them…?)
masks can be uncomfortable (we should consider what all drives people to dislike masks so much)
paid sick days should be universal and it should be considered barbaric not to have them
desensitization to COVID and illness?
if you have severe issues from long COVID, you might not be able to be out and talk about it, and if you can be they might not be immediately obvious
people tend to underestimate how unpleasant illness can be (someone mentioned online someone joking about wanting to be chronically ill so they could stay home, but it would not be pleasant to do so)
it has been made into a political thing
people don’t like things that make them stand out (so if there’s any discomfort at all it becomes really bad – even i have not wanted to wear a mask bc i might stand out. luckily for me, i realized that i stand out anyway! and not in a good way! so!)
(not in chat but – maybe because of that it’s just not on peoples’ minds anymore. also if it’s only certain people who think something, people tend to assume it’s a niche cause that doesn’t really matter; “reasonable” usually means “normal” rather than “backed by reason”. and people really don’t like standing out)
people can think they’re fine but still be contagious (preventive masks)
schools insisting people attend regardless of health (this one angers me SO much. i had strep throat all the time as a kid bc of this. i also never had a fever so they’d say “you’re fine!” and then i spread the strep throat (or other thing) around again and then i got it again.)
would wearing masks and being exposed less often weaken immune systems? or is being exposed weakening them? what causes a weak or strong immune system?
“if reasonable precautions were taken (might I do the sacrilegous thing of suggesting basic sanitation?), a lot of colds/flus/common illnesses could be eliminated.” that was amethyst but i reply – “basic sanitation?! how could you even suggest such a thing? You really expect busy, hard-working people to do the barest minimum when it would take an entire twenty seconds out of their day? Multiple times, I may add. Heck, it could take several long, irreplaceable minutes if you’re sanitizing objects! kids these days… what’s that? You could get sick? Nobody cares about that, it’s not like it’ll take you a week to get over.”
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more ideas!
-what about vaccines? many people believe that they will be protected through vaccination, yet it’s not a full protection… not to mention you can still spread Covid even if you’re vaccinated, making it harder to eradicate the virus completely. on the other hand, is it possible to develop a vaccine that really does fully work? (if so – hallelujah!)
-what about forms of treatment? Rest seems to be an essential one…
-what about recurring cases of Covid? what effect do they have on people? one thing i’ve noticed is that people seem to be experiencing brain fog much more nowadays. Could that be a symptom of Covid, especially if someone has been infected with the disease multiple times?
-what about animals? Dogs and cats can catch Covid too – how does it affect them? Have people noticed symptoms in their pets?
-what does all of this mean for society? If leveraged correctly, it could be a tool to make society more humane – more tolerant, more willing to let people rest when needed – but where’s it actually going to end up? I got curious and took a look at a well-known online platform to see what people were saying there. Encouragingly, I found tons of posts from people who supported mask-wearing and valued good health. There are sensible folks out there; they just don’t get heard from very often, but it’s still good to know that they exist.
Some thoughts in reply to the points you summarized (although I lack the time to say everything I want to)…
yes paid sick days!!! The problem with our society is that people think that Efficiency is vital. And they think that Efficiency means running around, working frantically, with no time or empathy. (Ooh, side note: have you read Momo by Michael Ende? It’s sort of about that conflict of effiency vs. love/empathy, and it had a big effect on my worldview.)
ooh yes, it would be good to talk to the people who still wear masks at my school! Actually one of my teachers always wore a mask when I took his class last year, and I did get to talk with him and we really connected over that.
masks can indeed be uncomfortable – but they’re really useful on cold days lol because the air you breathe gets warmed up as it passes through the mask on its way to your nose, so then you don’t have that awful shock of directly breathing icy air:)
ugh it is just barbaric the way schools insist that students come to school even when they’re sick. It happened to me when I was in primary school. It just goes against all common sense. Again, I think the root problem is the prioritization of efficiency (and it ends up being inefficient anyway).
That’s a good question about weak vs. strong immune systems. My family doctor once explained that repeated exposure to an illness actually weakens one’s immune system, because it gets worn out with fighting germs so much. After all, the constant digestion of sugar doesn’t make you less prone to diabetes; it’s the same principle, I believe. It holds true in my experience. Perhaps getting out and about does help many people’s immune systems, but that could be because of the exercise and stimulation. Exercise is great for the immune system, after all.
I think that most people (assuming they’re healthy) have varying immune systems. Some people aren’t affected by one sort of germ, but just can’t handle another. I think people need to figure out what works best for them and what they need to avoid. Of course, eating well, sleeping enough, being unstressed, and so on will be really helpful in general.
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yikes, sorry it took me a while to reply! I wanted to be sure I had time to respond thoughtfully, and then for some reason the CB stopped working on my laptop, and now I have to go shopping:( but this is just to let you know that I’ve read your posts and will respond as soon as possible!
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General thoughts, in reply to your first post! I’ll add to the Covid ideas in a reply to your last post.
Yes, all of that is so true! I find it really frustrating to see the dietary problems that this country, and many others, are experiencing. Even assuming that people have access to a properly balanced diet, there’s still the problem of genetically modified products and the use of pesticides – plus, as you point out, the overconsumption of meat is really bad for the environment.
I think one of the solutions is local agriculture. If a community comes together to support a farmer, who in return produces healthy and hopefully affordable food, it can benefit everyone. It can make the world more sustainable and also draw people closer together, to judge from what I’ve read.
I agree that people often adopt a defeatist attitude:( but I think that’s changing? Our generation seems very passionate about important causes. Just look at Greta Thunberg. I think a lot of people are starting to take matters into their own hands or just appreciate positive change. Societies do evolve, so hopefully many of the problems we see today will be dealt with as people adopt better ways of living. The good thing is that the solutions are already out there; it’s just a matter of getting people to focus on them.
Regarding Covid, I think people ignore it because of unwillingness to accept it… The problem is that catching Covid can be a very touch-and-go affair. It becomes easier to deny or ignore it because there’s a reasonable possibility that you might not catch it or feel sick from it. Because of that aspect of luck, people become more comfortable with not taking action, I think – they might take the mental shortcut of blocking out the possibility of illness, which is easier to do than blocking out the certainty of illness. But then it becomes a vicious cycle, because no one talks about it and so many people may actually not know how bad the situation is. Especially because the media doesn’t cover Covid, or chronic illness at all, very often.
Another option is that maybe some people are actually willing to accept the possibility of getting sick. Of course nobody enjoys being sick, but maybe some people accept it as an unalterable aspect of life, meaning that they feel they don’t need to take precautions.
I also think that there is a deeper problem: there will always be people who have other issues and use Covid (or climate change and LGBTQ rights and such) as a catalyst to take out their frustration in unhealthy ways. It’s one thing to be ignorant or willing to take a chance, but it’s quite another to express malevolence toward those who feel differently. I agree that mask wearing does seem common in those of LGBTQ identity, but I’ve seen all types of people doing it, which is interesting.
For me, I always feel a bit out of place wearing a mask because I’m usually the only one wearing anything of the kind, but in my experience, people have been really understanding about it. For most of my acquaintances, it doesn’t seem to really matter to them; they’re generally very polite and considerate about it. Funny story, once I was walking out of class and I passed a couple of boys. One of them looked at me and blurted out earnestly, “I like your mask!” I thought that was very sweet. I”m really grateful to be among such accepting people. I wish you could have a similar experience…
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My understanding is that vaccines are never fully effective but instead promote herd immunity, therefore reducing the chances of anyone getting the illness. however, i cannot find any evidence either way because every search i tried ended up with exclusively “vaccines cause autism and don’t work anyway!” articles.
I’m glad you’ve seen all types of people wearing masks! It seems that you live in a really progressive area, and i’m glad for you
:Dthe “necessary fact of life thing” – fantastic point, idk how i didn’t think of that. If people thing something is inevitable, natural, or necessary, and normal, they won’t do anything to fix it. And illness fits all of those categories. for instance, people think that eating meat, dairy, and eggs is all of those things (even though there’s nothing natural about factory farming and about 99% of all animals are factory farmed, including dairy and eggs); therefore instead of thinking “hmm, maybe i’ll try oat milk today” or “what if i left the meat out of chili?”, they mock vegans! (there’s also the issue that people think food is incapable of tasting good without meat (my mom will rave about how good something is, like this white bean pot pie, and then the next minute she’s putting it down because it doesn’t have meat. *sighs* ofc not all vegan food is good, but there’s plenty of bad meaty food too…) and lots of other things, but this is not about this, it’s only supposed to be an example. oddly my dad is perfectly fine with vegan food, so i wonder if it’s cultural, since tofu and such was a normal thing to eat for him since he’s Japanese… sorry VERY off topic
XD)back to illness, some is probably inevitable, but look at all the diseases we’ve gotten rid of – dangerous illnesses should not be accepted. also people probably think “oh well i got COVID and I was fine, so it’s not that bad”.
it’s actually our generation i’m talking about to an extent – people may support things but… maybe it’s more a perfectionism issue. also the commercialization of it – it’s way too common for people to say “sustainable fashion is elitist! (and therefore bad)” because they think of it as only sustainable brands rather than air drying, thrifting, mending, buying less, and making things last. (also “buying less” seems to be seen as impossible for some reason, like fashion, and lots of it, are necessary to life – i do understand if it’s a hobby you’ll have more clothes, everyone has hobbies, but everyone should also try to minimize the impact of them. i still get too many stuffies, but i’m trying not to XD oh also i’m doing a no-buy for… maybe the whole next year, idk. we’ll see. at least a few months. we had a lot of doctor appointments in big cities this year so i got way too much non-thrifted stuff) I still don’t get that argument considering fast fashion inherently involves exploiting people in poorer countries with less safe working conditions. also supposedly there’s a lot of people going back on being various sustainability efforst because “it’s too late”. So why make it worse?! This is probably more of an issue in places very focused on various identities, though. It’s the sort of thing where you say you can’t do something, someone else suggests easier things that have a similar effect, and people are like “you’re elitist!” not quite that bad but something like that. say i posted something like “how do i go vegan or eat less animals as a really picky eater?” (by picky eater i mean to the point where it causes nutritional issues, like essentially eating the same few cereals and a few other things for weeks, and even smelling or touching certain things can make me gag and feel viscerally ill) the answer wouldn’t be “well what can you eat that’s inherently vegan? would you be open to trying substitutes like beans, tofu, mushrooms, plant-based milks, etc? What about not putting meat in something or lessening the amount?” or other advice that could help you work up to small changes; the answer would essentially be “give up” but packaged in “be nice to yourself <3” phrasing. there’s some truth to that. on the other hand, it seems like it inevitably ends in giving up defeat, rather than “choose the thing that’s the easiest with the most impact and start there”. and if there isn’t one, that’s when you admit defeat for now and work on something else. i’ll fully admit that i’m lucky because tofu is one of my favorite foods, i like beans as well, and i’m probably better at trying new things as a one-off thing than many. on the other hand, the nutritional issues did not go away. like, i legitimately didn’t get enough protein (bc i was only eating cereal and cookies). That’s functionally impossible. If you look at most ultra-healthy cultures like the Blue Zones, some (like Okinawa) often eat less than our RDA (which has lots of added wiggle room, and which most people easily double). I’m not suggesting that, of course. But you really do have to eat nearly only cereal for that to happen. also there was no other nutrition.
So you don’t get concerned, i’m doing much better now and have made tofu rice bowls (or tofu made into fake egg rice bowls) with kale, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potato (pretty much the list of vegetables i’ll eat, but carrots is new! i kind of hate them but i CAN eat them!) into a “safe food”, and now i’m eating considerably healthier than i ever had when i was on the chicken nugget and tater tot or hamburger and fries or chicken and rice diet, and it slightly amazes me that nobody was ever that concerned when i was on that diet (and still had nutritional deficiencies, just more common ones from not eating enough plants) but now that i’m vegan it’s very concerning. I am lucky here, especially because i grew up severely allergic to dairy so i don’t actually like most milky things, and though i’m not severely allergic now, many storebought things i already ate were vegan from overlap.
but anyway, the point is that there’s no sense of grit or “hard but worth it” or “i can’t go fully vegan, but maybe i can reduce the amount of animal products i eat in some way” or “i can’t afford sustainable brands, but i can air dry”. maybe this is just that i hate feeling not in control idk.
well that turned into a tangent but this viewpoint infuriates me. it’s not dissimilar to the body positivity movement i mentioned (though they also think that being overweight is perfectly healthy, which… my family alone is proof that it’s not for most people) but the general idea that there’s nothing you can do and you just have to accept everything.
when there’s nothing you can do is often when you need to hold what you can do the closest. or at least that’s what i’ve found. just to stay sane. or less insane. without going into details bc CB, sometimes there are things that you can’t do anything about. sometimes you can’t fight. sometimes you are trapped, perhaps literally, perhaps not. sometimes the consequences of doing something are worse than just not doing it. but there’s always some way. it can be a single thought; the one thing nobody can control is your mind. i just… the acceptance of helplessness is far too normalized in certain (online) forums. and you’re not always trapped.
WELL that was a tangent i’ll respond to the rest later. good points so far!
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more relevant thoughts – also haven’t read Momo, will look into it
Actually my cat Fritz got COVID and his eyelid flipped inside out bc he was sick. I know that one of the animals at a local zoo got COVID and actually died. This was an endangered species. I have mixed feelings on zoos, but that was a tragedy.
Idk for treatment. I know that one of my doctors mentioned gut health and bacteria being a thing… could that impact immune health somehow?
I love efficiency personally, but when done incorrectly it ends up in less productivity. Efficiency can be great – for instance, finding a good practice strategy and spending 3 minutes on an issue in a piece rather than 3 hours. But overworking yourself does the opposite.
It would make sense if repeated infection was worse for your immune system because it seems like everyone is mentioning that illnesses have been worse lately. I do know that when you are exposed to an illness you make antibodies against it because the way that my IV works is that they pool those antibodies from a wide donor pool.
Should we make a question list for the masked students? What information do we want from them? Perhaps “what inspires you to wear a mask?”
This is possibly beyond the scope of this article, but how has media coverage affected things? Or the general idea that COVID is over? However, from the CDC: “As of December 28, 2025, we estimate that COVID-19 infections are growing or likely growing in 39 states”.
I honestly think that everyone needs to realize that this is a really big issue. Ironically I haven’t had severe COVID infections (possibly bc i’ve been vaccinated). Do you think vaccines were considered too much of a miracle?
I think that some ways it could affect society: encourage sick days, maybe promote empathy for people w/ disabilities, maybe even make people care about their health.
Actually could the general issue of media literacy be an issue? If nobody knows who or what to trust i mean.
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Happy New Year!!
Okay, back to the topic:) That’s interesting about your dad being fine with vegan food; I do think that ethnicity or culture can affect one’s preferred diet. For instance (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, sorry if I have) one of my parents’ friends is Indian, and he actually can’t digest beef or pork very well (it’s very common for Indians to grow up vegetarian), so for him it’s better to have a more vegetarian diet. But I end up with a lack of energy and vigor if I don’t eat a moderate amount of meat, so I guess I need animal products a bit more. I was reading about how everyone’s body is different and needs a different combination of nutrients. Apparently, over the centuries each ethnicity adapted to the foods that were available in their areas. (Don’t take my word for it, though – I haven’t really looked into it seriously, so I could be mistaken.) And of course, the things someone ate as a child might influence what that person likes as an adult. Like how people often say their mom’s cooking is the best.
I wish more people would accept that sustainable fashion doesn’t have to be elitist… Oh, and that’s wonderful that you’re planning to do a no-buy, good for you!
I’m glad to hear you’re doing better with your dietary issues! Do you think you would be open to trying organic vegetables, if you haven’t already? I hated zucchini until my mom started buying the organic type, which I was fine with. Maybe the taste and texture of organic vegetables would be more palatable for you too.
That’s a good point about gut bacteria, definitely something to look into. Antibodies as well! But Covid just keeps creating all these darn variants, which nobody has antibodies against. I think that’s one of the problems with the vaccines – they only immunize you against a very changeable part of the Covid virus, so all the virus has to do is go through a simple mutation in order to infect you.
I remember reading, way back in 2020, that llamas could produce Covid antibodies, which was a potential form of treatment. *looks it up* *several minutes later* oh my gosh I’m going to faint. According to an article from the Argonne National Laboratory, scientists have found camelid (camelids are animals like camels and llamas) antibodies that ACTUALLY CAN TREAT RSV AND SARS AND MERS plus other scientists have found antibodies that might treat Covid and could even protect against the mutation problem I was just talking about! sorry for the all caps and italics, but this is extremely exciting! WHY has the media not covered this more? Here’s the title of the article in case you want to look it up for yourself: “Why the lovable llama might be a secret weapon against Covid-19,” by Andre Salles. There are a lot of more recent articles from last June, but they’re on websites I don’t necessarily trust:/
There was another really interesting solution that I’d heard about some time ago: dogs could be trained to detect Covid infection. They do it through their sense of smell. There’s an article about that from UCLA Health, if you’re interested: “Specially trained dogs can sniff out Covid-19 infection.”
Good idea for a question list! “What inspires you to wear a mask?” could be a good question. Here are a few more ideas:
-have you previously struggled with feeling sick from Covid?
-what is your experience as a mask-wearer? Pros and cons?
-what are your thoughts on the way that health is viewed today?there are probably more questions that I’m not thinking of, feel free to add more if you want:)
I think the media coverage is one of the major issues. The media’s one of the main factors affecting what people think, yet it tends to brush it off mentions of Covid or ignore the disease entirely. The other extreme is when it takes on a sensationalist, politicized tone. What we really need is visible, balanced coverage – even something like a daily graph of Covid cases would be so helpful. Great point about media literacy and misinformation! It seems that there’s a growing distrust of the media, but no one knows how to evaluate sources and arguments, so they continue to fall for misinformation. All thanks to our brilliant education system which does such a good job of imparting critical thinking skills /sar
Yes, I think the vaccines were seen as too much of a cure-all… I do accept that they helped many people, but they also encouraged people to throw precaution to the winds when really, we still needed time and caution. I’m 100% in favor of vaccines in general, but it just seems like these in particular weren’t very good quality. I think a vaccine should be able to immunize everyone fully, (or for a long period of time), and have zero side effects. I’m fairly sure there’s a way to create that type of vaccine for Covid, if only someone would give it a try and do really methodical, careful work.
New point: how do we protect ourselves against new diseases that might come up? It turns out that before Covid, scientists had already known for years that a new disease could appear and cause a pandemic; it’s just that the governments wouldn’t listen to them and take precautions. Unfortunately, if Covid and RSV and SARS happened, a new pandemic could easily appear, especially if people keep cutting down rainforests and causing climate change and having increased contact with animals who might have all sorts of infections.
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working on a reply sorry