Science or (and of) Fear

I believe in science, in particular, social science, has as much to do in explaining the pandemic as the CDC. Indeed, it explains the CDC.

For example, if people who say they believe in science really did, schools would open with no distancing. The science says that kids don't get sick with Covid and are not spreaders (my guess is that it is because they are already responding to Coronavirus as a class, aka, colds.

This reaction shows that what people really believe in is fear. It is an evolutionary survival trait, as is boldness in the face of fear. Some of these traits are also cultural, libertarians exhibit boldness, egalitarians exhibit cooperation (another evolutionary adaptation). Fatalists believe in fear and Hierarchists believe in certainty (organized boldness).

The challenge for medicine is to take responsibility for how their message lands in these contexts. Marshaling fear is a dangerous tool. It alienates the bold and manipulates the fearful and cooperative. This keeps kids out of school, even though the pediatricians say otherwise, and patients out if the ER because they fear diagnosis is a death sentence.

Science is about mastering fear and following the evidence. In its bad days, if forces consensus (the enemy of inquiry). The evidence has been screaming that the virus starts as a cold, but image manipulation resisted. It was not going to bars that kept the wave going, it was bad science. From incubation to SARS is 5 weeks, not 2 or 3, with a runny nose or sneezes with heavy mucous being the leading indicator (except in kids).

Can policy follow the science? The one social science we need to ignore us politics. Quit talking about Trump, it short circuits the science. Send the kids to school and quarantine adults with runny noses and productive sneezes for 3 weeks - no exceptions. If they are allowed outside, masks won't save us.