4 ms·

The thesis of the article seems to be predicated on the existence of “pandemic denial”, which is not formally defined in the article. Never a good sign. In my

The thesis of the article seems to be predicated on the existence of “pandemic denial”, which is not formally defined in the article. Never a good sign. In my experience, I have never met anyone who denies there is a pandemic of sorts. Nor have I read anyone denying the existence of a pandemic, once the WHO made that call. And I read lotsa stuff from all corners of our fair Internet. Which makes the argument that [there is “pandemic denial” to be addressed] itself a sort of straw man argument. You can forgive me not climbing down the ladder of this article when it is, to use the argot of today’s youth, “turtles all the way down”.

DanBC 6y ago
> The thesis of the article seems to be predicated on the existence of “pandemic denial”, which is not formally defined in the article. Never a good sign. No. The entire article argues against the existence of pandemic denial. > But the claim is a straw man: there is no epidemic of pandemic denial. Polls since March have shown that Americans overwhelmingly aren’t in denial: They believe the threat of Covid-19 is real, they are reasonably good at identifying medical misinformation, and they are largely complying with public health recommendations. Compared to their peers in Europe, Americans are more willing to get vaccinated against Covid-19, similarly likely to wear masks, and no more prone to believe common conspiracy theories about the pandemic’s origins. > The U.S.’s response to Covid-19 has been bungled in many respects, but widespread public denial doesn’t explain why.