The messaging on masks and vaccines has been weak to say the least.

[Doodley]

I assumed that we would see a spend in the hundreds of millions to convince some of those who believe masks and vaccinations don't work or are part of a conspiracy, that they have been misinformed. I struggle to see any real effort to change hearts and minds.

I am pissed that a family member has died of Covid, and about a thousand a day are dying, and the real-world economy is being further damaged, and that may not have happened if fearmongering, bare-faced lies, anti-science, anti-anything that isn't Trumpian wasn't allowed to fester.

We can blame the right. We can blame Fox and other media on the right. We can blame the crazies. We can say, "it's their fault." That doesn't address the problem. The problem is misinformation. If we (the Democratic Party) don't have a strategy to tackle misinformation, and not only about Covid, but about every single thing. if we don't yell at least as loud as the right, we risk losing everything. We risk Trump, or another fascist winning power in 2024.

"Screw them," isn't an answer. I'd appreciate your views and suggestions on what Democrats need to be doing.

[orwell]

1. It's been 24/7 with ads on both radio and tv where I live...

...civic leaders have all recommended vaccination.

The people who refuse masks/vaccinations would rather listen to RW nutjobs.

It doesn't matter what we do.

[Doodley]

2. That seems very defeatist. Why does America have a misinformation problem on a scale other

nations do not have? We can't give up.

[orwell]

40. In many respects...

...we are becoming a third world country.

It is the result of a coordinated plan by the Cons to dumb down the low IQ portion of the electorate with sound bites and simple emotional messaging.

I have given up. I live in a rural area and I am telling you that I constantly run into people that literally do not make any sense.

People who work in county government who say they hate the government.
People who are poor who are against programs or economic policies that help poor people.
People in bad health who oppose universal health care.
People who say they hate Obamacare but love the affordable care act (they don't believe they are the same thing.)
People who are opposed to mRNA vaccines because they claim they change your DNA. When asked they have no idea what DNA is.
People driving around with giant Fuck Biden flags. (And I live in Northern California 2 hours north of San Francisco.)
People walking around with cowboy hats and deep southern accents who grew up in the SF Bay Area. Cowboy up!

In essence, as an IT professional, I run into these morons every day and have to act like they deserve respect when they show none to anyone else.

They brag about killin' democrats. They are getting ready for a "civil war". They wear their stupidity like a badge of honor, chewin' tobacco and spittin' in a cup.

So yeah, I'm defeatist. In the middle of a global pandemic they reject science and embrace stupidity as a tribal rite. Many of these people sit on Water District Boards, Fire Boards, and School Boards. They run dental clinics and big wineries. They have lots of money or live in a trailer. The one thing they have in common is they support the Con party and TFG.

So yeah...been here for 20 years, about ready to retire, and looking for another planet to move to...

[Dream Girl]

3. I agree. I've worked in marketing and advrtis8ng for 30+ years.

Last edited Sun Aug 29, 2021, 09:12 PM - Edit history (1)

I was so expecting to see much, much more. What little I’ve seen doesn’t convey the severity of Covid and the 8mportannce of getting vexed. The messaging is forced on being social and reunited with loved ones. The focus needs to shift to saving yourself…not dying and leaving behind loved ones to pick up the mess.

[PortTack]

23. We are seeing very different views! From the first covid units and pts were being shown

Nurses, physicians and all stripes of medical professionals being interviewed, family members. I really don’t see how much more could have been done

[Dream Girl]

27. I'm wondering if there is different messaging based on geography. I'm in the SF Bay Area. I've

Never seen the types of ads you mention. In fact not that many ads at all. What few I’ve seen are all all social connections and family and getting bac to life.

[leftstreet]

4. Start by firing the director of the CDC

That's where this shit started back in May with a relaxed "honor system" of masking and distancing. Yet they knew full well about the Delta variant and breakthrough infections

How is the CDC not taking the heat for this?

[LisaL]

7. Messaging on masks was horrible from the start, even before CDC recently decided vaccinated people

didn't need masks (of course they had to take that back when things got really bad). But in the beginning of the pandemic, people were told they didn't need masks or that masks didn't work.

[leftstreet]

8. I still just shake my head

If this had happened under Trump's watch

[Scrivener7]

10. What?? It DID happen under TFGs watch.

[leftstreet]

13. No. The May 13 mask guideline change

I meant the mask/distancing guideline change that happened in May of this year

The other poster was commenting on CDC inconsistencies from the beginning, and I agreed

[snowybirdie]

15. Excuse me

Covid Delta variant started in June in India and spread rapidly to us. They couldn't warn against something that didn't exist here then! Come on folks, no govt is perfect!

[LisaL]

16. Delta covid has been around since 2020.

NT

[snowybirdie]

18. Where?

Covid Alpha was the biggest infector in 2020. Cite please

[boston bean]

25. Delta was in India in March. They knew it would be here soon enough.

CDC fucked up big time in May.

[LisaL]

29. Here:

"Since first appearing in India in late 2020, the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the predominant strain in much of the world. Researchers might now know why Delta has been so successful: people infected with it produce far more virus than do those infected with the original version of SARS-CoV-2, making it very easy to spread."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01986-w

[Crunchy Frog]

26. There was a significant Delta outbreak in California in May.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/28/delta-variant-unvaccinated-children-elementary-schools/?utm_source=reddit.com

The CDC knew that these high risk variants were lurking in the background. That was exactly what Dr. Fauci said about the need for continued masking just days before the CDC announced their change in recommendations.

No government is perfect, and nobody expects it to be, but it's best if they can avoid major unforced errors.

[Treefrog]

19. Yep, that was so stupid.

We all knew it.

[Quakerfriend]

5. I think laws should be implemented

That make it a crime for tech companies to allow posting of disinformation. It should also be criminal for anyone in public office to spout falsehoods or disinformation.

[Doodley]

36. Yes, incitement to cause death through disinformation should be a crime.

[unblock]

6. I'd say it's the coverage of the pro-Covid effort that's been reprehensible

The media has given a lot of exposure and time and legitimacy to the pro-Covid effort of some people to create confusion and doubt where none really is or should be.

If the media referred to these people as pro-Covid or as bioterrorists (which they are) instead of making their actions seem plausible by calling them merely "anti-mask" or "anti-virus", then we'd be in a much better place in terms of containing the virus.


It's hard to convince people that not wearing a mask is not just stupid but actually evil when the media presents it as just another personal/political choice.

[Doodley]

35. I agree with all you say. It is hard, but it is harder still without a strategy.

I spent most my life in the UK. I can't understand why America has this problem of a third of the country believing utter crap, without the other side seeming to have a strategy to deal with it.

[LowerManhattanite]

9. I'm gonna say a terrible thing here...

These people are NOT misinformed.

Not at all.

What they ARE doing is making a clear choice in what information to listen to.

The internet is an open source. Nothing is blocked. When you opt to not listen to doctors or scientists during a public health emergency and instead listen to a muscle-head comedian telling you to eat horse de-wormer?

That’s a choice. 🤷🏾‍♂️

They know better, but are willing to cut off their lungs’ air supply to spite “The Libs”.

They don’t WANT to hear it.

[Scrivener7]

12. This. There is no dearth of information for them.

I really don't have the mind space for their nonsense anymore.

[Doodley]

34. A lot of them also believe climate change is a hoax and Trump had the election stolen.

They are morons in my opinion. But we can't just accept that. We need to rebut the false information and humiliate the superspreaders of lies that put people at risk, as they do in other nations.

[stillcool]

14. this sounds Republican-ish

take the shit you've been dishing out and blame it on anyone else.

[kacekwl]

17. All I've heard in the last year and a half from every

Democratic governor, the President, the CDC , speakers Pelosi and Schumer etc. Is wear a mask social distance. Not only by words but by example. If someone won't wear a mask by now it is by choice not confusion or fear. So yes screw them.

[Doodley]

30. My point is that it isn't working. Screw them doesn't achieve anything. It isn't a strategy

to help doctors and nurses or to help those whose income us affected by the ongoing pandemic or innocent folk infected by the reckless, maskless, unvaccinated.

[Hortensis]

20. I disagree strongly. Good grief. Messaging is constant and full of death and suffering. nt

[PortTack]

22. Agree..I don't know what more could've been done...

[Doodley]

31. 200,000 new infections in a day and 1300 dead. It isn't working.

[Hortensis]

38. People got the messages long ago. Over 65s rushed in large numbers

to get vaccinated because they got the message that they themselves were at real risk of dying. This includes a large majority of older conservatives, including hostile trumpists.

THINK about what that says about those in younger, much safer cohorts who've been openly spreading a killer virus to others for a year and a half now.

There's something really bad going on, all right, but it's that they DID get the message and this has been their response.

[Silent3]

24. Messaging doesn't work with the willfully ignornant and proudly stupid...

...who suck up misinformation like a sponge, and dismiss good information as "fake news".

These people will do the opposite of whatever the "lame stream media" and any competent government official tells them to do... those damned elitist, stuck-up know-it-alls! Those satanic baby-eating pedophiles aren't going to step on my free-dumb, or inject their poisons and microchips into MY body!

[Doodley]

32. Why is disinformation worse here than in other nations? We need to do more, not give up.

[Silent3]

37. Disinfo is terribly effective in a lot of other countries

That's how Putin stays in power. That's a big part of why the Middle East is so fucked up.

If you want to only compare the US to other wealthy Western countries, yes, the US does seem to do worse. I'd guess that's because American culture had long had a particular strong anti-intellectual streak, and more religious fundamentalism.

What to do about it? Well, "better messaging" isn't enough. Where applicable, however, it's still within the scope of well-protected First Amendment rights to hold people accountable for incitement to riot, abusing the legal system (like many of Trump's lawyers), slander, libel, practicing medicine without a license, willful spread of disinformation with intent to cause harm (with "intent" be the part that is tricky, but not impossible, to prove), etc.

[tavernier]

28. Absolutely! They knew how to scare the crap out of

people in the olde days.

Instead of Covid or Delta, some goofy names that sound like airplanes flying to an exotic South Pacific location, Blood Lung sounds like a much better handle.We should’ve gone back to the old Black Death or Small Pox or Bubonic Plague. Warnings should be for Scar tissue over the face and the genitalia, instead of just not being able to breathe.

I’m all for science but they really should work with Hollywood to get the proper creepiness in the diagnosis.

I know that sounds like I’m being funny, but in all honesty, we’ve white washed the names of these horrible viruses in order not to frighten people, But I think we should try a little harder to get back to scaring the crap out of them.

[Doodley]

33. You make a very good point. IMO, the most constructive and perceptive comment on this thread.

[betsuni]

39. "we would spend in the hundreds of millions" -- Democrats aren't the ones with unlimited funds.

And when they do raise money they're called corrupt, "taking" money from wealthy elites, lobbyists, corporations, billionaires and not progressive because "beholden." Bullshit.

Democrats can't stop misinformation. They haven't "allowed" it. Another "Why didn't Democrats stop _____ ?" "Why don't Democrats stop "every single thing?" Stop.