Covid and Me

https://newslit.org/

Before you go on, an article in the May 8 & May 22 issue of Science News ran with a cover "Awash in Deception:  How science can help us avoid being duped by misinformation."  In the lead article titled: "The Battle Against Fake News," Alexandra Witze presents five suggestions on how to debunk bad information.  They come from the News Literacy Project (see the above link).

How to Debunk:

1.  Arm yourself with media literacy skills, at sites such as the News Literacy Project (newslit.org), to better understand how to spot hoax videos and stories.

2.  Don't stigmatize people for holding inaccurate beliefs.  Show empathy and respect, or you're more likely to alienate your audience than successfully share accurate information.

3.  Translate complicated but true ideas into simple messages that are easy to grasp.  Videos, graphics and other visual aids can help.

4.  When possible, once you provide a factual alternative to the misinformation, explain the underlying fallacies (such as cherry- picking information, a common tactic of climate change deniers.

5.  Mobilize when you see misinformation being shared on social media as soon as possible. If you see something, say something.

"Misinformation is any information that is incorrect, whether due to error or fake news.  

"Disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive."

"Propaganda is disinformation with a political agenda."

Sander van der Linden
Social Psychologist
University of Cambridge

Source:  Science News/May 8, 2021 & May 22, 2021

March 12, 2020: If you are or were a teacher on this date, you will remember it with a great sense of mixed feelings. Most of us didn’t really know about COVID yet. We were told by the governor through our school administrators that we would not be teaching in our classrooms for at least the next two weeks. Great vacation, right?

After that first week or there about, we got word that we would be teaching remotely. It came to be known as “Distance Learning.” In retrospect, it was a sincere attempt at “Distance Teaching,” but to call it “Distance Learning” was presumptively over optimistic and badly misnamed from the perspective of students.

We did the best we could for the remaining 2 1/2 months of school. Little did I know at the time that I would not be setting foot in my classroom again as a full time middle school educator. I am grateful for those 2 1/2 months and the technical expertise that I developed during that time and the years immediately preceding my retirement. It has prepared me for my return to the classroom as a Substitute or Guest Teacher and my future as an educator.

I mention these things because after 983 days of COVID freedom, an Antarctic cruise, nearly 20,000 airline miles and 51 days of Guest teaching, the blasted little mass of infectious, viral proteins known as COVID, finally got me. Nearly three years of not only being COVID free, but from being illness free. The masking, the hand washing, the social distancing. It all worked.

If it hadn’t been for my own frontal lobe deficiency on December 9, 2022 at a Christmas Concert, I WOULD STILL BE ILLNESS FREE.

Why did I just put that in caps? Actually, it was an accident. But, as it turns out it was appropriate for me to emphasize that point in print with ALL CAPS! Dr. Fauci, the CDC and all of those nagging public health officials were RIGHT ALL ALONG about masking, hand washing, social distancing and, yes, even about vaccination.

I got COVID because I made a wrong decision about masking in my role as a Master of Ceremonies for a Christmas concert in December 2022. The experts were right, the scientists were right, the public health officials. They were all right. They have been right all along. Read about COVID fatigue in Science News.

I’m going to be ok. I had moderate cold-like symptoms for four days and I knocked COVID back on its little viral suction cups by taking Paxlovid. If this had not been the holiday season and if I were not going to be around people who were immunocompromised, I likely would have chosen not to medicate. Medicating seemed the prudent thing to do.

Coincidentally, these COVID statistics are dated December 9, 2022, the day that I was most likely exposed to the COVID virus. Up to that day, there had been 101,000,000 cases in the United States, 183,000,00 cases in the Americas and 1,109,394 deaths.

Over ONE MILLION DEAD AMERICANS. Wherever you stand on mask wearing, personal vaccination or precious individual and civil rights and liberties, that number is grotesquely higher than it should have been. I personally blame the gurus of disinformation and propaganda for a very large percentage of those victims. They did not have to be victims. You know some of them and so do I.

If I sound a little angry here, it’s because I am angry. I’m NOT angry at the fact that I got sick. I am angry that I put many innocent and vulnerable people at risk because I made a bad decision on a December night in 2022.

Bottom line? Trust the experts. Follow the tools that I started the blog with and look at the news sources that you have chosen to believe with a critical and rational eye and brain. Teach your loved ones to do the same. Ignorance is not an excuse. Be critical, be smart, be safe and take care of the people you love.

Have a happy and safe holiday season.

Bruce