Updated: 220920
CV03. Information: Ebola GIGO, CV04. Politics: Government Needs during Pandemic, CV01.1. Political as Confirmation Bias CV05. Economics: Swiss Food Lines, CV06. Linguistics: When to use Technical Meaning, CV16. Consequences, Social Change: Effort without Fulcrum Lever or Load, Belief as Fact, Mixed Metaphors, CV18. Narrative, Social Reality: Repetitions of Denial, CV21. Syndemic, Concurrent Disasters: Heat Wave and CV, CV23. Polemic, Nocuous: Bioterrorism Framing, CV27. Learning: Media Literacy, CV30. Methodology: Informed Influence of Policy, CV33. Legal: Four Ecclesiastical Judges
PDN Introduction, Glossary
CV03. Information: The Challenge of Misinformation During Disease Outbreaks. The characterization of misinformation and the social media environment during a fear inducing disease outbreak may help to improve communication practices in future outbreaks. The authors of a study published today in BMC Public Health look at the content of Ebola related tweets from the Ebola communication crisis of 2014 and discuss how this is also relevant to Covid-19 today. 200812-CV21.2.
CV04. Politics: Covid-19: Governing Is Hard. To govern, you need people, agencies, programs and funding. Ronald Reagan famously said that "government is the problem". Well, in a pandemic it is not the problem – it is one of the major solutions to the problem. Note, I did not say the only solution. We have had trouble here in the United States on many fronts with responding to the pandemic at the federal, state and local levels. Just look at Wisconsin this Memorial Day weekend. I saw photos of Lake Geneva, a place I'm familiar with, that looked like it was the 4th of July in a non Covid-19 year. Nary a mask in sight. In about a month we'll know what immunity there is in the general population.
-A. POST COLLECTIO: Sep 2022 there is still circulating CV with new mutations, plans for another booster, and potentially a bad flu season. I think that is indicative that there is not much immunity. “Herd Immunity” is a frequent topic in the 2020 PDN listibase.
CV04.1. Coronavirus Origin Research Hit by Political Agendas, China’s ‘Sars Hero’ Says. Respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan says project with US epidemiologist Ian Lipkin to find source of virus is at risk. International scientific cooperation ‘vital’ to prevent future pandemics. Though China’s missteps aggravated CV, given the persistence of the current White House trying to prove Cuba used a sonic weapon against the US Embassy, and recent withdrawal from WHO, among other actions detrimental to global health, this will be the likely be turned into GIGO despite the information being factual, 200322-4B*. Confidence Drives Confirmation Bias [Chart] CV16B↓. 200819-CV04.
CV05. Economics: A Mile Long Line for Free Food in Geneva, One of World’s Richest Cities. By early afternoon last Saturday, nearly 3,000 residents of Geneva, one of the world’s richest cities, had filtered through the stadium to receive a food parcel worth about $25. Some carried babies. Some were in wheelchairs. Some had waited for more than six hours.
-A. In medical terms, Geneva has not been as gripped by the Coronavirus crisis as other areas of Western Europe. In the city and its surrounding suburbs, fewer than 300 residents have died in a population of half a million.
-B. But in economic terms the crisis has been ruinous for Geneva’s underclass — the undocumented and underpaid workers often forgotten about in a city better known for its bankers, watchmakers and U.N. officials. Thousands of people working in the shadows of the Swiss economy lost their jobs overnight in March, as hotels, restaurants and families fired their undocumented cleaners and maids in response to a lockdown enforced by the central Swiss government.
CV06. Linguistics: The First Victims of Coronavirus Coped with an Unexpected Feeling: Shame. Her predicament was not uncommon among so called Patients Zero, the first residents of their communities to contract the dangerous virus. Several who were sickened at a Biogen conference in Boston in February reported feeling ostracized, one posting that he gained "a whole new appreciation for those who live under the cloud of stigma 201003-CV18 every single day of their lives. Even when her symptoms improved, the emotional trauma of feeling like an outcast in her own community got so bad that I didn’t even want to take the trash out.
-A. Usually PDN is unconcerned if an excerpt has poor grammar, spells words differently from SAE. As long as it communicates what is believed. Misusing words to support a particular narrative are acceptable, such as “Constitutionalists” who are anti Government and anti Public Health, and use Freedom of Speech for inciting riot 210103-23B -C. There are some terms that have a technical meaning that when used in the context of analysis is misleading CV16↓. Using Isolation (someone is infectious) when Quarantine (could have been exposed to an infectious disease) is the correct term. Shelter in Place (an immediate health threat outside) instead of Stay at Home (prevention of taking a threat out to others), have significant differences. Same for Stigma (marked as othered) 201003-CV18, Ostracized (excluded), Shame (when others know of wrong behavior), and Guilt (when the individual feels they have done wrong, even if no one else knows). Not important as an illustration of using words that are loaded, or will fit in the headline, but for analysis including the actual meaning of the word in context, or using the correct word, is required. What was experienced here was not shame but guilt about exposing others, which oddly was motivated by feeling too guilty to take time off work. Those who ostracized the person feeling guilt were demonstrating crowd hysteria and ignorance.
CV16. Consequences, Social Change: Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. Systems analysts have a great belief in leverage points CV06A↑. These are places within a complex system*A – a corporation (closed), an economy (closed), a living body (open), a city (closed), an ecosystem (open) where a small shift in one thing can produce big changes in everything.
-*A. A complex system is not the same as an open system. No matter how complicated a closed system does not change from outside input. It can be elaborated, varied, adapted, improved, but once a systemic change is introduced the system collapses (dies). Then it is replaced by a new system, albeit using parts of the previous systems as is necessitated by closed systems. An open system may be simple (say DNA, which consists of only 4 letters), but has endless complications, combinations, synergistic interactions, unknowns, evolves, and by definition open systems are living systems which cannot be static.
-B. This idea is not unique to systems analysis – it’s embedded in legend (paradigms, worldview, narrative). The silver bullet, the trimtab, the miracle cure, the secret passage, the magic password, the single hero who turns the tide of history. The nearly effortless way to cut through or leap over huge obstacles. We not only want to believe that there are leverage points, we want to know where they are and how to get our hands on them. Leverage points*C are points of power.
-*C. This is a business interpretation of engineering [Chart] and social science concepts applied to organizational cultural change and cultural keys. The Good Enough Anthropologist, Good Enough Ethnography: Reflections on Becoming a Medical Anthropologist. 171203-6.1.
-D. People know intuitively where leverage points are (i.e. belief not supported by evidence). Time after time I’ve done an analysis of a company, and I’ve figured out a leverage point – in inventory policy, or in the relationship between sales force and productive force, or in personnel policy. Then I’ve gone to the company and discovered that there’s already a lot of attention to that point. Everyone is trying very hard to push it IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. In other words, solving the wrong problem and Confirmation Bias CV01.1↑. 200601-CV16.
CV18. Narrative, Social Reality: 4 Stages of Covid-19 Denial. This is the same pattern of the denials of other biocalamities, 200525-CV18. 1) It will go away. 2) It is other people who will get sick. 3) It's old (other) people who die (this is not a concern to me and I will remain more comfortable without considering it may have impact on me). 4) If I do get it, my chances of dying are slim. Vaccine and Coronavirus Skeptics Packed into a Hotel for a Conference over Memorial Day Weekend, Defying Guidelines. People's Willingness to Take Part in Protests Unaffected by Coronavirus. ADDED: [Strip].
CV21. Syndemic, Concurrent Disasters: A Summer Unlike Any Other: Heatwaves and Covid-19 Are a Deadly Combination.
CV23. Polemic, Nocuous: Coronavirus: Experts Warn of Bioterrorism after Pandemic. Terrorists will not forget "lessons learned" during the pandemic. This is probably more about having a vested interest in bioterrorism as a threat, rather than the demonstrably more likely and more damaging natural threats that are increasing. The bioterror threat remains the same as it was before CV, but there is a real possibility of diverting funding from bioterrorism to natural (albeit anthropogenic) threats. The lesson learned is not the effectiveness of bioweapons, but that the social disruptions that occur in biocalamities are prime situations to exploit for groups that are willing to use terrorism and popularism to achieve their goals.
CV27. Learning: Media Literacy Lessons a must for Schools. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of teaching students the difference between real and fake or misleading news say the authors of a new report into news media literacy education.
CV30. Methodology: Research in the Time of a Pandemic: The Researcher's Role in Shaping Policy and Communicating with the Public. Focused on the clinical side of biocalamity, not the social parademic side, but still it has analogous observations. Perhaps future articles in this series will address the social dimensions that interfered with and facilitated research, informed policy, communication to the public.
-A. POST COLLECTIO: Looking over articles posted since this original post I did not see any related to parademic. It literally is about research the time of a pandemic, not research about a pandemic time.
CV33. Legal: Why 4 Justices on the Supreme Court Voted to Reopen Churches in the Pandemic. Roberts’s decision is a loss for the religious right and a victory for public health. But four justices saw the case differently. 200523-CV33. Trump Calls for Churches to Reopen Right Now. One German Church Service Resulted in Dozens of Coronavirus Infections 210103-3C, One German Church Service Resulted in More than 100 Coronavirus Infections, highlighting the risks of allowing group events that can accelerate rapid spread of the virus. California Church Going to Supreme Court on in Person Restrictions. California Lays out Pandemic Rules for Church Reopenings. The question that has not been answered is why was this case was fast tracked to the US Supreme Court, It is possible that the four desisting judges were the same four that are required under Writs of Certiorari and were approachable outside normal legal channels. One could get the impression these judges made up their minds before the case.
-A. ADDED: The CDC Just Changed This Big Coronavirus Rule That Could Affect You, the rule appeared and then disappeared from the agency’s website. CDC Quickly Changed its Guidance on Limiting Choirs at Religious Services. [Cartoon].
-B. POST COLLECTIO: SCOTUS since this has become more originalists =2=. This means the interpretation of the US Constitution from an anomie perspective and an imaginary Founding Fathers intent (appeal to authority). Part of the larger effort of loosely related agendas to control government and society.
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