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This is a common theme over at /r/HermainCainAward. At first, Covid was seen as a threat similar to Bird Flu but even graver with the news from Italy and China

This is a common theme over at /r/HermainCainAward. At first, Covid was seen as a threat similar to Bird Flu but even graver with the news from Italy and China. Then, as the Trump administration started to downplay mitigating actions due to possibly affecting the election, Covid denialism started to become a conservative in-group signifier. Shortly aftewards, reports came out about Covid disproportionately affecting communities of color and Democrat heavy areas which sealed the deal. From that point on, any conservative seeking to remain relevant had to get behind covid denialism in all forms because the virus was initially seen as hurting the "right people".

tempnow987 5y ago
Curious why you look to be getting downvoted. One thing when I looked at the data. Despite the hype / orthodoxy on the left about blacks and hispanics being the ones getting / dying from covid (disproportionate effect). The actual differences were not that large. "Black people make up a similar share of cases relative to their share of the population (13%), but account for a slightly higher share of deaths compared to their population share (14% vs. 13%). This pattern has been consistent since October 2021." https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/covid-19-cases-and-deaths-by-race-ethnicity-current-data-and-changes-over-time/ https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/covid-1... So yes, disproportionate to a degree, but I feel the messaging ran away with this racial disparity angle. This was a fact changing virus, and spread was not even by community. In other words, asian community may have been hit hard early? But now has a pretty low rate?
- colpabar 5y ago
  >Curious why you look to be getting downvoted. It doesn't really add anything to the discussion; the comment boils down to "conservatives bad".
  - x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
    It does add something to the discussion. It demonstrates the call stack of how we got to a point of much of white america engaging in covid denialism.
    - tempnow987 5y ago
      Right, I thought it laid that call stack out well, even though my own view is elderly, overweight WHITE americans were actually at some real risk despite the positioning going on.

tempnow987 5y ago

Curious why you look to be getting downvoted. One thing when I looked at the data. Despite the hype / orthodoxy on the left about blacks and hispanics being the ones getting / dying from covid (disproportionate effect). The actual differences were not that large. "Black people make up a similar share of cases relative to their share of the population (13%), but account for a slightly higher share of deaths compared to their population share (14% vs. 13%). This pattern has been consistent since October 2021." https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/covid-19-cases-and-deaths-by-race-ethnicity-current-data-and-changes-over-time/ https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/covid-1... So yes, disproportionate to a degree, but I feel the messaging ran away with this racial disparity angle. This was a fact changing virus, and spread was not even by community. In other words, asian community may have been hit hard early? But now has a pretty low rate?

colpabar 5y ago
>Curious why you look to be getting downvoted. It doesn't really add anything to the discussion; the comment boils down to "conservatives bad".
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
  It does add something to the discussion. It demonstrates the call stack of how we got to a point of much of white america engaging in covid denialism.
  - tempnow987 5y ago
    Right, I thought it laid that call stack out well, even though my own view is elderly, overweight WHITE americans were actually at some real risk despite the positioning going on.