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I always thought the US should have been harnessing ad agencies and Hollywood production companies in its public outreach for covid. Instead I think it overreli

by dv_dt 5y ago

I always thought the US should have been harnessing ad agencies and Hollywood production companies in its public outreach for covid. Instead I think it overrelied on basically politicians or administrative heads of various govt depts appointed by politicians.

cyounkins 5y ago
I think many people didn't expect US vaccination to be as difficult as it has turned out to be. Anti-vaccine sentiment existed before covid but in a smaller proportion (at least in my eyes). Using hindsight I agree with you and think that could have been more effective.
derstander 5y ago
> Hollywood production companies I don’t disagree that messaging in the US about Covid could have been improved. But I think there’s a reasonable chunk of the population that would assume malicious intent (or at least political intent) in anything coming out of Hollywood. And there might be a fair amount of overlap with folks currently hesitant or outright refusing the vaccine. I’d be interested in a historian’s take on messaging re: Covid in comparison with messaging re: polio or the like. I think there will be a lot of scholarship in sociology and public health about Covid in the years to come.
- avastmick 5y ago
  This site is interesting on the history. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-a...
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  That assumption would be completely justified since Hollywood is a reeking den of exploitative pedophilic rats.
- dv_dt 5y ago
  To be clear I wasn’t bringing up Hollywood to get celebrities, I was just thinking higher production value public information spots. I don’t think there would be any added particular pushback there - no one rejects high production value Marvel movies just because they from Hollywood.
huuuz 5y ago
??? What's more political than a Hollywood movie company? How many conservative movies or TV shows have you seen lately?
shapefrog 5y ago
I think this shit sells itself.
avastmick 5y ago
I’ve wondered this often during the crisis. Normally, to me anyway, in crisis, politicians fall back on a toolbox of propaganda. I’ve been waiting on the, “Anti- vaccination is un-American. And the conspiracy theories are all a (Russian/Chinese/Iranian) plot to undermine our way of life,” rhetoric. But it never came along.
- inkblotuniverse 5y ago
  I don't think the current social elites in america could bring themselves to say 'un-american' like that.
- lamp987 5y ago
  Un-american is considered a virtue by current society though.
- native_samples 5y ago
  The propaganda is there, it's just sufficiently well evolved that you can't see it. It even works as you say it does, which is amazing. Consider the way that Biden keeps blaming lockdowns and government measures on the unvaccinated. He keeps saying, everything can go back to normal, if only those annoying unvaccinated people get the jab. Literally "the unvaccinated are undermining our way of life", as you put it. But that's illogical because if the vaccines worked, there'd be no need for any more measures. People could decide to take it or not and deal with the consequences themselves. Health insurers could take it into account in their premium calculations, if necessary. Instead they are keeping the measures and using them as an excuse to pit Americans against each other. In reality the measures will never end until people collectively insist they are removed. Israel is a good demonstration of what happens in a country with high levels of compliance: over a million people who thought they were vaccinated, are now having their passes revoked, because they didn't get a booster shot. How many "boosters" are necessary for this particular vaccine? Probably an infinite number. They certainly are not any way to restore life to normal given government attitudes so far.
  - bellyfullofbac 5y ago
    > But that's illogical because if the vaccines worked, there'd be no need for any more measures. Your logic seems short there. People are still falling ill and filling up hospitals, and these are primarily the unvaccinated. If the vaccine workee and everyone took it then we can reduce the restrictions, oh hey this is a comment thread about a country that's doing exactly that... does that mean the vaccine is working? Zomg! Imagine a row of houses, and the ones at the left side are on fire. Firefighters are spraying the houses from the right with retardant so they will only be slightly charred if the fire reached them. In my mind whar you're proposing is analogous to wanting the firefighters to stop spraying the stuff after 60% of the houses got the spray.
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
"I always thought the US should have produced more consoomer-appealing propaganda. We should have had the Avengers tell us to take the vaccine to defeat Thanos-19."
- dang 5y ago
  Would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? We ban accounts that do that, and you've unfortunately been doing it a ton. That's seriously not cool here—it's destructive of what the site is supposed to be for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.
  - HelixEndeavor 5y ago
    Sure thing, apologies.
    - dang 5y ago
      Appreciated!

by dv_dt 5y ago

cyounkins 5y ago

I think many people didn't expect US vaccination to be as difficult as it has turned out to be. Anti-vaccine sentiment existed before covid but in a smaller proportion (at least in my eyes). Using hindsight I agree with you and think that could have been more effective.

derstander 5y ago

> Hollywood production companies I don’t disagree that messaging in the US about Covid could have been improved. But I think there’s a reasonable chunk of the population that would assume malicious intent (or at least political intent) in anything coming out of Hollywood. And there might be a fair amount of overlap with folks currently hesitant or outright refusing the vaccine. I’d be interested in a historian’s take on messaging re: Covid in comparison with messaging re: polio or the like. I think there will be a lot of scholarship in sociology and public health about Covid in the years to come.

avastmick 5y ago
This site is interesting on the history. https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-a...
HelixEndeavor 5y ago
That assumption would be completely justified since Hollywood is a reeking den of exploitative pedophilic rats.
dv_dt 5y ago
To be clear I wasn’t bringing up Hollywood to get celebrities, I was just thinking higher production value public information spots. I don’t think there would be any added particular pushback there - no one rejects high production value Marvel movies just because they from Hollywood.

huuuz 5y ago

??? What's more political than a Hollywood movie company? How many conservative movies or TV shows have you seen lately?

shapefrog 5y ago

I think this shit sells itself.

avastmick 5y ago

I’ve wondered this often during the crisis. Normally, to me anyway, in crisis, politicians fall back on a toolbox of propaganda. I’ve been waiting on the, “Anti- vaccination is un-American. And the conspiracy theories are all a (Russian/Chinese/Iranian) plot to undermine our way of life,” rhetoric. But it never came along.

inkblotuniverse 5y ago
I don't think the current social elites in america could bring themselves to say 'un-american' like that.
lamp987 5y ago
Un-american is considered a virtue by current society though.
native_samples 5y ago
The propaganda is there, it's just sufficiently well evolved that you can't see it. It even works as you say it does, which is amazing. Consider the way that Biden keeps blaming lockdowns and government measures on the unvaccinated. He keeps saying, everything can go back to normal, if only those annoying unvaccinated people get the jab. Literally "the unvaccinated are undermining our way of life", as you put it. But that's illogical because if the vaccines worked, there'd be no need for any more measures. People could decide to take it or not and deal with the consequences themselves. Health insurers could take it into account in their premium calculations, if necessary. Instead they are keeping the measures and using them as an excuse to pit Americans against each other. In reality the measures will never end until people collectively insist they are removed. Israel is a good demonstration of what happens in a country with high levels of compliance: over a million people who thought they were vaccinated, are now having their passes revoked, because they didn't get a booster shot. How many "boosters" are necessary for this particular vaccine? Probably an infinite number. They certainly are not any way to restore life to normal given government attitudes so far.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  > But that's illogical because if the vaccines worked, there'd be no need for any more measures. Your logic seems short there. People are still falling ill and filling up hospitals, and these are primarily the unvaccinated. If the vaccine workee and everyone took it then we can reduce the restrictions, oh hey this is a comment thread about a country that's doing exactly that... does that mean the vaccine is working? Zomg! Imagine a row of houses, and the ones at the left side are on fire. Firefighters are spraying the houses from the right with retardant so they will only be slightly charred if the fire reached them. In my mind whar you're proposing is analogous to wanting the firefighters to stop spraying the stuff after 60% of the houses got the spray.

HelixEndeavor 5y ago

"I always thought the US should have produced more consoomer-appealing propaganda. We should have had the Avengers tell us to take the vaccine to defeat Thanos-19."

dang 5y ago
Would you please stop posting unsubstantive and/or flamebait comments to HN? We ban accounts that do that, and you've unfortunately been doing it a ton. That's seriously not cool here—it's destructive of what the site is supposed to be for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit more to heart, we'd be grateful.
- HelixEndeavor 5y ago
  Sure thing, apologies.
  - dang 5y ago
    Appreciated!