2 ms·

I'm not a big fan of this new trend of some random Twitter personality suddenly becoming the go-to source of information on COVID. Granted, it seems true that

by CPLX 5y ago

I'm not a big fan of this new trend of some random Twitter personality suddenly becoming the go-to source of information on COVID. Granted, it seems true that she's actually an epidemiologist, though not unusually notable as an assistant professor at a mainstream state school. As far as I know she doesn't have unusual access to information, or a hands on role, she's drawing from public sources and doing analysis. Which, is fine. But what makes me nervous about this trend is that she's now like almost a household name. She's built a personal brand around this image as being the up to the minute source of information, and the audience she's developed has a certain profile. They're basically looking for someone to tell them how bad everything is and how scary everything looks, backing it up with details so her audience can feel smart when they relay all this info to their friends. The minute that COVID isn't actually something to worry about her audience is gone and she goes back to being a random obscure civilian. Which is an incentive structure that makes me pretty sure I know what she'll be posting tomorrow, and a week from now, and so on. I realize the mainstream news media isn't any better. But still, it's an odd new development that people are mostly seeking out the level of fear/concern they want in their news rather than the other way around.

paganel 5y ago
If it matters almost the same thing has been happening in my country (Romania), only that around these parts of the world we have FB as a replacement for Twitter. I personally regard it as a coping mechanism for the people that follow these newly created Covid personalities, the bad thing is that in most of the cases the mainstream media copy-pastes those posts/messages and presents them as the truth, even though there are many devils hidden in the statistical details most of the time.
JPKab 5y ago
> though not unusually notable as an assistant professor at a mainstream state school. We really, really need to get away from this academic obsession with prestige. If she does solid analysis and communicates it effectively, with a record that looks increasingly good as time passes, she's already ahead of the curve. Meanwhile many other highly-credentialed, prestigious experts have been wrong over and over and over again in this pandemic. Academic/scientific institutions are polluted by the credentialisim/prestige focus. It's the ugliest aspect of the whole space.

by CPLX 5y ago

paganel 5y ago

If it matters almost the same thing has been happening in my country (Romania), only that around these parts of the world we have FB as a replacement for Twitter. I personally regard it as a coping mechanism for the people that follow these newly created Covid personalities, the bad thing is that in most of the cases the mainstream media copy-pastes those posts/messages and presents them as the truth, even though there are many devils hidden in the statistical details most of the time.

JPKab 5y ago

> though not unusually notable as an assistant professor at a mainstream state school. We really, really need to get away from this academic obsession with prestige. If she does solid analysis and communicates it effectively, with a record that looks increasingly good as time passes, she's already ahead of the curve. Meanwhile many other highly-credentialed, prestigious experts have been wrong over and over and over again in this pandemic. Academic/scientific institutions are polluted by the credentialisim/prestige focus. It's the ugliest aspect of the whole space.