Clearly some people in the US don't believe anything they are being told and will never believe anything unless the views are like theirs.
That is certainly true of a percentage and always has been true of a certain percentage. But I think the majority are perhaps just becoming much more wary of what "experts" and politicians are saying because they seem to change course a lot and be wrong a lot. And each side hates the other and uses any means, including public health, to strike at the other. And the media plays everything up to scare people because that results in a lot of clicks. So I just think people are being tired and wary of all of this.
The masks are one example. For months, no need for these, these won't protect, don't hoard them, you don't need them. Now it is wear them, but they still won't protect you without social distancing, that is the real protector -- and by the way, we told you you didn't need them because we needed them for medical people and didn't want the public taking them. But now you can make or buy cloth ones, so yeah, we will now pretend we really care about your health.
And projections of illness and death are another example. I saw a good article yesterday. Gov Gavin Newsome, on March 18, told the federal gov't that within 8 weeks (i.e. May 13) they projected roughly 56% of Californians would be infected -- about 25.5 million people -- and they would have 255,000 deaths. That was with a shut down and masks and social distancing, etc. I am sure he had experts providing him with those numbers. As of this morning, May 11, Calif has 66,680 cases and 2,745 deaths. And this type of over estimation is happening every place. Folks aren't stupid and they begin to wonder whether their leaders and experts are just this out to lunch or are they trying to manipulate them. Either scenario does not built confidence. And I think sometimes leaders overstate to either give dramatic emphasis or to scare folks into compliance, but you face a backlash -- which is what I think is happening now.
And the media really stokes the fire. Nearly all across the board, the majority of deaths (nearly 85%) are in the old and sick -- mainly over 70 with major health issues. Nursing homes are hotbeds and just devasted. But we rarely hear that 75% of the cases in Virginia are in nursing homes. Instead they deliberately pick up and run with stories of younger people who have died -- and at least two of the stories involving teenagers have now been shown to not be true and they did not die of COVID-19.
We, as a nation, did not have a lot of trust in our political leaders -- of either party -- before this happened. And yeah, it is easy to pile on the President and I would be the first one to agree that a lot of his policies are bad and dangerous -- but I started believing that in May 2019 when he dismantled the CDC pandemic unit and I did not hear an uproar from the other side of the aisle or a call for an investigation or other review. And the House Intelligence Comm gets much of the same info about threats, like this virus, as the President does. So where were they in Nov and Dec 2019? Oh, I forgot, they were concentrated on holding an impeachment proceeding that everyone knew had no chance of being "won" instead of focusing on protecting the country. And Nancy Pelosi was touring SF Chinatown restaurants on Feb 24 encouraging folks to come out and support those businesses. She now tries to back peddle saying she was only doing it to combat the President's rascism towards the Chinese and that everyone knew the virus was dangerous and sprending at that time and she is critical of Trump for not taking action earlier. Huh? Just admit that you didn't think this was that big a deal either Nancy and you were still trying to strike back from the impeachment loss. To do what you are doing just makes people doubt you more.
So yeah, I don't trust any of them, including experts who may have their own agendas because they hate Trump and hate the cuts he made to important depts and they are humans with their own biases. Sorry, being a doctor or in public health doesn't make you an angel. So I will continue to do my own research. But I think they should all pay attention to the fact that they are all losing standing in the view of a lot of Americans.
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