Denial in a crisis. 🧵

It's a maladaptive response trying to reimpose order on a world that to the person has lost sense.

I keep saying we need psychologists to weigh in.

[originally posted Aug 2021 on moron's site]

This is why you see it out of people who are ... odd.

And their followers as well. You will see the followers ssying thank you for the good news.

They are not looking for accurate facts.

They are looking to be soothed.

For any raft they can find in this storm.

I rather suspect the GIVER of "good" (fake) news feels good about giving it and reassuring the RECIPIENT.

And lo and behold we see that happen.

The two adults have self-soothed.

This is why my opposition to idiots in public health "soothing" the public. It is a myth that the public panics. These are just weak people in charge.

Took me 10 s to find a Foreign Policy piece referring to this _disaster sci expert_ saying it's a myth.

https://nitter.net/SamLMontano/status/1303740766955675649#m

The Only People Panicking Are the People in Charge

The public can handle disasters better than lying leaders can.

Foreign Policy

But just to close out, I cannot see that infectious disease doctors (for ex) take a single disaster management course in their training.

Further, public health requires (in Ontario) one year of ID, and to be a doctor.

As I said from the start, these people are not trained for this.

Which is why, and this is just my opinion, we might see so much "be kind" messaging out of them.

It might be as much about being kind to THEM (i.e. not criticizing) as to each other. (Or it's straight career PR. Some are very good at that.)

To be frank, considering what people are going through, most people have continued to be pretty kind to each other

Why did countries in Asia do better than we did? No, IMO, it was not simply they threw on a surgical mask.

They have effective DISASTER RESPONSE systems.

Again, one minute of searching found this Korean article. Korea dealt with MERS.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123823/

"The recent major disasters in Korea ... taught Korea important lessons that cooperation among all relevant organizations, ...is essential for effective disaster response ...and [government] should execute a joint field training program"

Disaster Theory

To find a conclusive definition for contemporary purposes and uses, we look at many of the various definitions of disasters through cataclysmic events, historical records, public policies, laws, and organizational usage. Our natural progression leads ...

PubMed Central (PMC)

And in 15 more seconds, I found this Japanese article discussing mental health consults in times of crisis.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084937/

Within WEEKS the consults are down to a low level.

Acute Mental Health Needs Duration during Major Disasters: A Phenomenological Experience of Disaster Psychiatric Assistance Teams (DPATs) in Japan

Background: How long acute mental health needs continue after the disaster are problems which must be addressed in the treatment of victims. The aim of this study is to determine victims’ needs by examining activity data from Disaster Psychiatric ...

PubMed Central (PMC)

Not zero. We shouldn't expect them to be zero.

But the myth that people panic and the world goes to pieces is exactly that:
a myth.

Reminder to follow the disaster science expert, above!

(Sure, I may read up before I open my mouth, but I am no expert.)

P.S. This is why people stating risks get called "fear mongerers"

It's a tactic to try to stop messaging that contradicts the worldview of the person trying to self-soothe.

Same with anti-mask sentiment.

Mask is necessarily a signal of risk. Incompatible with "no big deal", the fantasy they desperately want to believe in.

(It should go without saying, but I'd better say it: yes, there are of course people who stoke fear for personal gain, and this is not what I am referring to here.)
For reference, to leave here, an example summary of what infectious diseases is, from one school of this field.

I don't know why I didn't think to search Wikipedia until now but there we go.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_response_to_disasters

Human response to disasters - Wikipedia

Sociology of disaster - Wikipedia

Article about how CDC had a messaging plan and it went out the window during this pandemic.

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/hs.2020.0190

Link to PDF about disaster myth. Hosted at CDC, ha.

https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/emergency_response/common_misconceptions.pdf

Department of Homeland Security has a link to 2002 guidelines for communication in a crisis.

https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=440159

Summary - Homeland Security Digital Library

Search over 250,000 publications and resources related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management.

Homeland Security Digital Library
CERC Manual | Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (CERC)

The CERC training program educates people on the principles and application of crisis and emergency risk communication when responding to a public health emergency.

In Disasters, Panic Is Rare; Altruism Dominates

Group panic and irrational behavior did not occur at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Instead the event created a sense of "we-ness" among those threatened, says Rutgers University sociology professor Lee Clarke. In his article, "Panic: Myth or Reality?", in the fall 2002 edition of Contexts magazine, he explains that 50 years of evidence on disasters and extreme situations shows that panic is rare, even when people feel "excessive fear."

ScienceDaily

Here are the two streams of response:

1. Denial, which avoids the cognitive dissonance and worry about death by simply suggesting to ones' self the danger does not exist. We see this in animal accounts on the bird site.

2. Actually changing behaviour to reduce risk.

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7323320/

The contagion of mortality: A terror management health model for pandemics

The novel coronavirus, COVID‐19, proliferates as a contagious psychological threat just like the physical disease itself. Due to the growing death toll and constant coverage this pandemic gets, it is likely to activate mortality awareness, to ...

PubMed Central (PMC)

Also, denial does not flow from ignorance.

It is a desire to reject beliefs that do not accord with our existing knowledge or beliefs.

https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/07/coronavirus-responses-highlight-how-humans-are-hardwired-to-dismiss-facts-that-dont-fit-their-worldview/

Coronavirus responses highlight how humans are hardwired to dismiss facts that don’t fit their worldview

"It is Fauci’s profession of amazement that amazes me. As well-versed as he is in the science of the coronavirus, he’s overlooking the well-established science of 'anti-science bias,' or science denial."

Nieman Lab

Origins? We used to hang out and caveman & chill in small groups.

Things that didn't fit, got thrown out.

Including Bob, if he suggested we sleep by the lake and not in the cave everyone else wanted to sleep in.

Denialism: what drives people to reject the truth

The long read: From vaccines to climate change to genocide, a new age of denialism is upon us. Why have we failed to understand it?

The Guardian
The Myth of Panic

Palladium Magazine
The frozen calm of normalcy bias

When disaster strikes, some people lose their heads, some people become cool and effective, but by far most people act as if they've suddenly forgotten the disaster. They behave in surprisingly mundane ways, right up until it's too late. Around the world, researchers are wondering how to combat normalcy bias.

Gizmodo

You may revisit all the lies as institutional failure, in not being trained to respond to a crisis, and attempting to sooth a supposedly panicked public.

It's rather hilarious when you look back on it.

Except for the dead and disabled people.

Then it is not so hilarious.

Consider whether when you read articles about other well-known viruses they smack of desperation and denial.
Denial is a helluva drug.

---

Ah we do everything again, and again, and again.

This from 1948.

"It's not as bad as whooping cough, stop freaking out"

@jmcrookston
Off topic, yet on topic… there was a link in that article about the safety of #fluoride in drinking water.. Basically I’m a dumb dumb for not wanting it in my drinking water

Therein lays problem

Idk at end of the day in my odd way my method is somewhat scientific, yet I also rely on intuition, common sense & actual irl experience

People aren’t open to being wrong which I will happily admit to as embarrassing as it can bešŸ¤·šŸ»ā€ā™€ļø

I’m all for fluoride in toothpaste thošŸ˜‚

@jmcrookston never thought of it that way. Thank you for bringing it up. I suppose I had always believed that those of us who mask up make everyone else uncomfortable because we remind them that COVID IS NOT EFFING OVER!!!
@hfinyow i think that's very similar or the same issue!