3 ms·
I think the media might have unintentionally done themselves in by using the terminology "vaccinated" with no qualifiers in much of the coverage of the virus in
by nonbirithm 5y ago
I think the media might have unintentionally done themselves in by using the terminology "vaccinated" with no qualifiers in much of the coverage of the virus in the past two years. Soon we might have to be careful to state "vaccinated, but only within the last six months" or "vaccinated, but with the version targeting omnicron". I can't imagine it will be easy for all the existing articles from months ago to be updated now that we have new information.
I feel the same way with masks. If you didn't do enough research, you could easily believe that anything with an N95 certification would be ideal for protective purposes, but plenty of N95 masks have valves which makes them useless for preventing infected individuals from infecting others. There are also cloth masks, gators, and so on. But to many people they all fall under the umbrella of the unspecific term "wearing a mask", and unless you explicitly look up the medical consensus, many sources of information are unlikely to also state "but not those masks."
- mrtksn 5y agoIt’s a mass communication, not precise scientific communication. It will keep evolving as the situation evolves. I think, the danger lies in the fact that everything said by scientists on the media is oversimplification and technically wrong as a result of the simplification attempt. This can erode credibility significantly.
- robbedpeter 5y agoComments amounting to "I am the science!" don't help either.