I think those people were there, but they were drowned out by the people and media who wanted to control the message. For example, you and I have fought the good fight on Twitter for months and months, trying to provide context to the messages on social media, where it was obvious some in the media were bent on selling a scary story to increase social media clicks and eyeballs on the nightly news.Wayland said:The damage done by public health officials, politicians, and media is going to take years (maybe even decades, if ever) to unwind. (Not to mention social media).Daviewolf83 said:
Very similar to the article Mormad posted, the following article in The Atlantic takes a similar tone, even discussing the idea of "harm reduction." As I have mentioned in a couple of recent posts, the messaging by Dr. Fauci and others really needs to improve and this article makes a very similar case. I encourage you to read this one, along with the article Mormad posted.
How the Public-Health Messaging Backfired
The cult like absolutism of measures that were nothing more than theater while shaming anyone who tried to identify context or nuance was abhorrent.
There were never simple answers and yet questions and questioners were branded as 'deniers'.
I guess, it is nice to see some voices finally start to speak up with some reasoned takes. But where the hell were they for the last year?
The lie that WRAL continues to beat into people on a daily basis that they actually employee "data trackers" who are helping to provide the truth is one of the areas I have tried to fight. For months and months, I have tried to counter their scary Twitter headlines regarding the reporting of deaths on a daily basis - where they misleadingly report daily reported deaths as deaths in the last 24 hours. I have provided absolute proof in response that this is not the case and many times, their mindless followers attempt to question my data. The thing is - my data comes from NCDHHS, but I actually take the time to understand and analyze it - something WRAL and their "data trackers" never do. Only last night, after almost an entire year of misleading reporting, WRAL ran a story pointing out their "data trackers" just discovered that the daily reported deaths are lagged data and can cover deaths over several months.
Always remember this in the news business - bad news sells and ultimately, news outlets are in the business to make money. The more eyeballs they can generate, the more they can charge for advertising, and ultimately, the more more revenue they can bring in.