I'm struggling with the criticism I'm getting for sharing upbeat #COVID19 news.
For years, I probed data and shared accurate analysis showing COVID risks were higher than most thought. Many people liked and reposted me.
Today, I share that COVID is far lower than it's been in six years after two years of consecutively declining surges, and people act like I'm a COVID minimizer.
Same guy, same data, same analysis. If you welcomed my concern, I hope you'd equally embrace my optimism. 1/2
@augieray "Optimism" about covid is able to be, and is, weaponised to oppress immunocompromised people.
It is used as the justification to scale back affordances to protect the vulnerable, and to force those people into situations that are a risk to them, but perhaps not so much for the abled population.
One might argue that expressing optimism about Covid is inherently unethical, and for a doctor, directly contradicts the "do no harm" principle.
@augieray "Optimism" about covid is what makes it impossible to see a dentist, because their staff may refuse to wear N95 respirators when you have to take yours off, because "Covid is over" and "Covid isn't so bad". Or, get trades in to your house, because even though you supply them with masks, they take them off when you're not looking.
It speaks to your attitude that you're not thinking from the perspective of people less fortunate than you.
@yatil @augieray Just because a piece of information is “true”, it doesn’t make disclosing that “fact” moral, ethical, or useful.
For example, publishing the ethnicity of every person who commits a (violent) crime.
“Facts” are not neutral, especially when used to justify outcomes that disproportionately affect vulnerable groups and individuals.
@metaning @augieray So what is your alternative? Keeping people who care about this uninformed? As people who are not caring are already uninformed. Or might the vulnerable person get the tradespeople in now to make the important repairs that they have delayed previously.
The information enables vulnerable groups to make appropriate decisions. And facts are indeed neutral, their interpretation might not be. Yours not more than others.
@yatil OK, well, I'm sure you would have no problem with your news stations reporting on "black perpetrated violent crime", every night. Right? That's a "fact", and would be "neutral" according to you.
How people will respond to that, will just be "their interpretation". Right?
The key phrase from this conversation was "optimism". Optimism about covid leads to people becoming unconcerned, to not take seriously their obligations to others because they've just heard "it's not around much".
@metaning I did not engage with that strawman because that’s what it is. And the fact is that most crime is conducted by white people here. That is the fact.
Again: What is your suggestion to handle this news that people who are vulnerable have the best chances to stay COVID-free since 2020? This is the concrete thing you just avoid answering. This is good, optimistic news. It’s not “COVID is over news”, but “there have been fewer road fatalities” is also not “there are none” news.
@yatil I did not say "most", I said merely reporting the "fact" of crime by a specific ethnicity. Facts are never neutral, they are always subject to the agenda of whomever reports them.
I reject your assertion that this "fact" implies what you are suggesting. What it suggests is vulnerable people are now at a heightened risk, because a "fact" which may merely be a quirk of surveillance methodologies, will encourage those around them to be less cautious, to not test before visiting, etc.
@metaning And again: How does less viral load makes it a higher risk if all other parameters stay the same (e.g. the vulnerable people still keep their guard up and others care about nothing)? People have not tested without explicit prompting at any time in the last 4+ years.
I visited my parents for the first time in 7 years in March and a Pluslife test was the basis for it. They wouldn’t have tested otherwise.
People have not been cautious around vulnerable ppl for 4+ years.
Augie Ray
Matt Godden
Eric Eggert