Covid Support Thread
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Eh. It’s a fucking flimsy excuse.
They treated the public like children and now act shocked and surprised that far too many reacted as such.
The flip flopping on masks (willful and deliberate lying — no less!!) pretty much destroyed the credibility of the CDC. But then, Fauci, too, was a master of crumbling credibilty. Hah! Remember him standing next to Trump — saying precious little against the buffoon’s endless babble of outright lies and nonsense?
It was fucking pathetic. My patience with Fauci ended long, long ago.
If I had kids, I’d yank them out of school. Kids WILL die. They already are. And Republicans don’t give a fuck. Neither do many Democrats.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.amp
This article sums up my views on “noble lies” better than I ever could.
CDC credibility started the crisis ruined when they allowed a not-invented-here-syndrome to prevent rolling out of foreign tests for Covid which had been approved in other Western countries and international agencies. They then compounded that problem by deciding to use the crisis and, I suppose, the funding it generated to set the goal as a test for all coronaviruses, which caused big delays and was completely unnecessary. That was definitely not the environment to dump the ‘noble lie’ on masks. Really, we do not, and should not, expect scientific experts to dump noble lies on us, they are supposed to give the straight science. CDC came out of this not smelling well.
I don’t buy the “virtuous lie” as a communications strategy.
Although it become very politicized, at the beginning Republicans and Democrats were equally concerned about the pandemic.
It’s been proven time and time again for other public health campaigns people respond best when you are honest and transparent. If they feel like you are being dishonest or trying to manipulate them, you lose credibility and when you invariably change your recommendation, create confusion. There have been case study after case study on this. It was a mistake to tell people they didn’t need to wear masks, when masks actually are helpful just sparse.
It is unfortunate that Trump was president, of course. A sane, rational president that was capable of listening to others would’ve temporarily banned the sale of N-95s and surgical masks from the consumer market and authorized the defense act to manufacture more, all while telling people that *cloth* masks are sufficient for people not working in the health sector.
And the thing is it wasn’t just masks the NIH, CDC, and Fauci weren’t transparent about. For example, they also downplayed what we’d need for herd immunity because they felt we “weren’t ready to hear it”.
I do respect Fauci as a smart man, I think he’s well intentioned, I appreciate the first half of the pandemic he was working under a President that was advising people to drink bleach and firing people left and right for contradicting him. So, not easy for him to have held onto his job and dignity.
But still, he is responsible for making some really big communications errors, IMO. Not solely responsible, not even mostly responsible. But he did and said some things that have made this pandemic harder, needlessly so.
My close friend’s kids were exposed to a positive covid case at camp last week (here in Brooklyn). They don’t have symptoms but she took them to get tested yesterday morning anyway. Results came back: one is positive, one is not positive yet. She got some at-home tests and will test everyone in the family in a couple days. Totally sucks.
Oh @Wendy – that suuuucks. I’m so sorry.
I understand the problem with the noble lie and for the most part I agree. But I also agree with Men In Black – A person is intelligent. People are stupid. We’re seeing this now. Some people choose the truth they prefer. Some people behave selfishly. Fauci knew this – in fact all of the lifers up there knew this.
Fauci did his best to walk a fine line between telling the truth and being replaced by someone who would never tell the truth and telling the lies that the former guy wanted him to tell. He was in a no win situation in which his years of experience and knowledge was dismissed because the storyline wasn’t making the idiot in chief the hero.
He’ll have to live with the consequences, but had he been removed entirely the consequences would have been worse.
Have you ever tried to say something, in a meeting or something, or better yet to a client, that your boss did not want you to say? Really think about that. What happens if you decide to go against their wishes and be completely honest? You get reprimanded and eventually fired. I have a friend who got fired because she wouldn’t shut up about her company’s data weighting practices. So I mean, imagine your boss has everyone fired all the time for everything. What are you going to do? Be as transparent as you possibly can without going so far as to get axed and replaced with someone completely bonkers and dishonest and doesn’t even believe data? Or….?
Exactly. I had a boss 20+ years ago that expected me to lie for him all the time. I hated it. I was there for three months and I told more lies in those three months than in the 5 years prior and 20+ years after.
I’ve never been asked to lie by my current employer. Maybe not hit a subject straight on, but if asked a direct question – you answer with the truth. You don’t throw anyone under the bus, “we found an issue, here it is. Here are the next steps we think you should take, how would you like to proceed?” or “We caused an issue, this is what’s happening and this is what we intend to do to make it better. Are you good with that solution?”
Exactly. I had a boss 20+ years ago that expected me to lie for him all the time. I hated it. I was there for three months and I told more lies in those three months than in the 5 years prior and 20+ years after.
I’ve never been asked to lie by my current employer. Maybe not hit a subject straight on, but if asked a direct question – you answer with the truth. You don’t throw anyone under the bus, “we found an issue, here it is. Here are the next steps we think you should take, how would you like to proceed?” or “We caused an issue, this is what’s happening and this is what we intend to do to make it better. Are you good with that solution?”
I’m super bummed that it seems like we are entering the fourth wave here in Canada. I thought we were done. I’m concerned for my parents and elderly friends who are vaccinated but might still get COVID because of selfish people. I think we can still target the uneducated and racialized communities for the vaccine. However after that I am done. I haven’t seen as many news reports of kids getting COVID in Canada (though I haven’t really followers but I dread that it will come once school starts in September.
I’m grateful though that we got to see my brother for the first time in 18 months last week and spend time together. His province no longer has a mask mandate and his cab driver to the airport didn’t have a mask. It was probably the longest time my brother has spent time with a stranger unmasked since this all started.
