3 ms·

Reading the simple formulas in this article, it looks like the present strategy of "social distancing" is intended to reduce R(0), the number of persons infecte

Reading the simple formulas in this article, it looks like the present strategy of "social distancing" is intended to reduce R(0), the number of persons infected by each infected person. Pretty obvious, but still it's good to have a clear understanding. It would be good if the same strategy could somehow be applied to the person-to-person spread of misinformation. But that's harder, witness some of the comments here.

microcolonel 7y ago
> person-to-person spread of misinformation You know, for as much as I've heard about the supposed danger of "misinformation", so many factual observations have been labeled "misinformation" early on, only to be later confirmed by WHO, a major national authority, or a medical journal. The type of misinformation matters a lot, because if people take the concerns about permanent lung damage, reproductive damage, and the extreme contagiousness of the virus seriously, it doesn't matter if they were "misinformed" to some extent. If the misinformation encourages them to not take things seriously, or to breach social distancing (see Rudy Gobert, who should hope he hasn't committed homicide for a laugh), that's when it is the most dangerous.