{"id":5053,"date":"2020-04-09T21:49:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-10T03:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2020-04-10T13:28:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-10T19:28:22","slug":"a-case-study-in-groupthink-mass-cognitive-dissonance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/a-case-study-in-groupthink-mass-cognitive-dissonance\/","title":{"rendered":"A Case-Study In Groupthink &#038; Mass Cognitive-Dissonance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/FQt91zwqhJQ\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/health-meta\">evidence<\/a> is overwhelming: poverty creates disease and death. It sickens and kills over the short and long term, and brings higher rates of morbidity and mortality. Things crucial to our day-to-day lives (medical and otherwise) come from healthy inventive economies \u2013 or they don\u2019t come at all, as many people are only now discovering. Ask yourself: who makes, uses, and replenishes these things?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll give you a hint: it is not government bureaus &#8212; not faceless, inanimate \u201cfactors of production\u201d (per economists\u2019 jargon) but real, live, self-interested, ingenious, productive people: entrepreneurs, scientists, researchers, lab technicians, doctors, nurses, medical specialists, EMT crews, hospitals, health insurers, and pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n<p>Claims about the &#8220;net benefits&#8221; of mandatory lockdowns and shutdowns are farcical and horrifying &#8212; because they&#8217;re woefully unequipped and dangerous, especially when used to justify destructive policymaking. In the words of economist <a href=\"https:\/\/fee.org\/people\/richard-m-salsman\/\">Richard Salsman<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;An economy is an intricate, delicate system, a stupendous, comprehensive latticework of interconnected contracts, of plans and sub-plans, markets and sub-markets, calibrations and expectations, retail chains and supply chains, prices and profits \u2013 a mosaic of real lives and livelihoods.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As of 4:00pm yesterday (April 8th, 2020), a total of 14,696 U.S. residents have died from Covid-19, and death is never something to be treated lightly or disrespectfully &#8212; and I know people who do both.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here are some other figures for context:<\/p>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>roughly 12,469 people in the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/21342903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died from the swine flu<\/a> from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010. Unlike Covid-19, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736%2820%2930566-3\/fulltext\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">mainly kills<\/a> older people with preexisting health problems, <a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/21342903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">87%<\/a> of people killed by the swine flu were under the age of 65.<\/li>\n<li>an average of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/reference\/covid-19_vital_facts.xls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">37,000 people<\/a> in the U.S. have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/about\/burden\/past-seasons.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">died from influenza <\/a>each year over the past nine years.<\/li>\n<li>around 170,000 people per year in the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/data\/nvsr\/nvsr68\/nvsr68_09-508.pdf#page=6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">die from accidents<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Deaths from Covid-19 are <em>right now<\/em>\u00a0<a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.justfacts.com\/reference\/covid-19_crucial_facts.xls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">7.1%<\/a> of the annual fatalities from the flu and accidents.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The main reason the flu takes tens of thousands of lives every year is that the these particular viruses &#8212; as opposed to Covid-19 coronavirus &#8212; mutate in ways that prevent people from becoming immune to them. Quoting the\u00a0<a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/jid\/article\/193\/1\/7\/870349\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>Journal of Infectious Diseases:<\/i><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll viruses mutate, but influenza remains highly unusual among infectious diseases [because it mutates very rapidly]&#8230;. New vaccines are [therefore] needed every year to protect against it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Much is still unknown about the mutations of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, but there are the indications that it <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em> quickly mutate. This means it&#8217;s less likely to be an ongoing problem. From\u00a0a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.embopress.org\/doi\/full\/10.15252\/embr.202050334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 2020 paper<\/a> in a molecular biology journal called <em>Embo,<\/em>\u00a0Michael Farzan, co-chair of the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research, wrote that once a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed, it \u201cwould not need regular updates, unlike seasonal influenza vaccines because the part of the virus that the vaccine targets is protected against mutation by a feature of its genetic material, or RNA.&#8221; The same point applies to naturally acquired immunity.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2020\/02\/covid-vaccine\/607000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Atlantic<\/a>, <a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/3\/11\/21163262\/is-there-a-cure-for-coronavirus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vox<\/a>, and even\u00a0<a class=\"textlink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/toddhixon\/2020\/03\/12\/get-ready-to-live-with-covid-19\/#41fdf7dc4782\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forbes<\/a>\u00a0promptly turned the truth of this matter on its head by confusing the general nature of coronaviruses with that of Covid-19. There are different types of coronaviruses, of which Covid-19 is caused by just one.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coronaviruses are a family of RNA viruses that includes some common cold viruses. These viruses tend to mutate rapidly, but Covid-19 does not share that trait. [It]\u00a0does not mutate rapidly for an RNA virus because, unusually for this category, it has a proof-reading function in its genetics&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.embopress.org\/doi\/full\/10.15252\/embr.202050334\">ibid<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"658\" height=\"579\" src=\"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.44-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5054\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.44-PM.png 658w, http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.44-PM-300x264.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 658px) 100vw, 658px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"686\" height=\"574\" src=\"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.21-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5055\" srcset=\"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.21-PM.png 686w, http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-09-at-9.16.21-PM-300x251.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 686px) 100vw, 686px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The evidence is overwhelming: poverty creates disease and death. It sickens and kills over the short and long term, and brings higher rates of morbidity and mortality. Things crucial to our day-to-day lives (medical and otherwise) come from healthy inventive economies \u2013 or they don\u2019t come at all, as many people are only now discovering. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/a-case-study-in-groupthink-mass-cognitive-dissonance\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Case-Study In Groupthink &#038; Mass Cognitive-Dissonance&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2963],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5053"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5062,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions\/5062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rayharvey.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}