5 ms·

I mean maybe in the broader sense, but bringing it back to something concrete: the CDC has a singular purpose, and plenty of money for planning so it can carry

by peytn 6y ago

I mean maybe in the broader sense, but bringing it back to something concrete: the CDC has a singular purpose, and plenty of money for planning so it can carry out that purpose. But having leaders who say things like (paraphrasing) “masks are better than vaccines” isn’t helpful, and I don’t see how that could be caused by the media. It’s possible that trust in institutions has decreased due to media and our specific disease control institutions suffer from cultural rot and antipathy towards the little people.

searine 6y ago
>But having leaders who say things like (paraphrasing) “masks are better than vaccines” isn’t helpful, and I don’t see how that could be caused by the media. In context, he was right. Face masks were and are the most widespread, and cheapest way to combat the disease. The issue is that phrase got turned into a soundbyte by the media and then FWD:FWD:FWD'd by grandma on facebook twisting the message into "CDC SAYS VACCINES DON'T WORK, THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK WILL STOP BILL GATES FROM TRACKING YOU". >specific disease control institutions suffer from cultural rot and antipathy towards the little people. The United States public health system has been a beacon of hope this past year. With a complete breakdown of executive leadership (due to preoccupation with politics and media), local public health offices from every state and county have picked up the slack. They are the ones organizing testing, disease tracking, vaccine drives etc. They all haven't gone smoothly, but we've actually done a lot better than most of the world. This isn't a new phenomenon either. The same thing happened in 1918. Breakdown of executive leadership which resulted in local public health being on their own. The only difference between now and then is that the death toll was kept much lower because of modern medicine's intervention in severe disease.

by peytn 6y ago

searine 6y ago

>But having leaders who say things like (paraphrasing) “masks are better than vaccines” isn’t helpful, and I don’t see how that could be caused by the media. In context, he was right. Face masks were and are the most widespread, and cheapest way to combat the disease. The issue is that phrase got turned into a soundbyte by the media and then FWD:FWD:FWD'd by grandma on facebook twisting the message into "CDC SAYS VACCINES DON'T WORK, THIS ONE WEIRD TRICK WILL STOP BILL GATES FROM TRACKING YOU". >specific disease control institutions suffer from cultural rot and antipathy towards the little people. The United States public health system has been a beacon of hope this past year. With a complete breakdown of executive leadership (due to preoccupation with politics and media), local public health offices from every state and county have picked up the slack. They are the ones organizing testing, disease tracking, vaccine drives etc. They all haven't gone smoothly, but we've actually done a lot better than most of the world. This isn't a new phenomenon either. The same thing happened in 1918. Breakdown of executive leadership which resulted in local public health being on their own. The only difference between now and then is that the death toll was kept much lower because of modern medicine's intervention in severe disease.