This is both incredibly sad and disturbing at the same time -- this nurse from South Dakota says some of her COVID-19 patients, even as they are dying, refuse to believe the coronavirus is the reason. What/who has instilled in them such a distrust of institutions, governments and science that they actually believe the virus is not real even to the end? I don't understand it at all. She also has a Twitter thread on this topic here.
A South Dakota ER nurse @JodiDoering says her Covid-19 patients often “don’t want to believe that Covid is real.”
— New Day (@NewDay) November 16, 2020
“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real.’ And when they should be... Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.” pic.twitter.com/tgUgP6znAT
17 comments:
What/who has instilled in them such a distrust of institutions, governments and science?
That's an important question. Regarding the coronavirus, Trump certainly deserves some blame. He never denied it, but his comments substantially understated its seriousness.
The media deserves some blame, because they haven't been terribly reliable, particularly about scientific issues.
Then, there are the anti-vaxxers, who deny the science of vaccines.
People who exaggated the risk of global warming may deserve some blame. E.g., According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/11/12/one-of-the-longest-running-climate-prediction-blunders-has-disappeared-from-the-internet/
Or the prediction of 50 million climate refugees by 2010.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/oct/12/naturaldisasters.climatechange1
Cheers
If it's down to scientists making wrong predictions then why is it that it's mostly Republicans that are into science denial? You can bet that a large amount of those downplaying the risk of coronavirus are Fox News viewers. The same goes for masks. Imagine how much better informed Trump supporters would have been if Trump had given out accurate information during his TV coronavirus briefings instead of using them as election rally substitutes. Or if he'd encouraged his supporters to wear masks.
Blogs like WUWT are also responsible. The David Viner quote was from a newspaper article where he was only talking about the UK. He didn't actually say a time frame but said they would still be getting snowfall twenty years in the future. The UK doesn't usually get particularly severe winters so it's quite possible that with global warming that his prediction won't be far out. .
J.D. - You may be right that Republicans are more scientifically ignorant than Democrats, on average. Still, it was a Democratic Congressman who worried about Guam, saying, "My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize".
The basic problem is that too many many Americans are scientifically ignorant, including many in the media.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cesSRfXqS1Q&t=1s
And Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) called the Internet "a series of tubes."
Off topic. Interesting, if true
"Biden’s First Climate Appointment Is A Fossil Fuel Industry Ally
The White House’s liaison to the climate movement will reportedly be Rep. Cedric Richmond — who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies."
https://www.dailyposter.com/p/news-bidens-first-climate-appointment
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DiC It's unclear if Hank Johnson meant that comment literary or as a methaphor as the rest of his questions considered the environmental damage of addng that many solders.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tipping-point/
I worry more about things like when John Shimkus quoted to Bible to "prove" that global warming couldn't be a problem because God had promised not to flood the world again. It's not even good theology.
@David in Cal
> “a very rare and exciting event”
> “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is..."
In Hungary this is becoming reality. Winter used to come with temperatures persistently below 0 from late October/early November up to mid/late February, and any snow would last months. We considered a minimum temp of -5C very mild. Nowadays persistent, whole day freezing is usually confined to 1-2 periods, 1-2 week long each. Snowfall is raw and snow is gone in a few days. My younger kids hardly know snow. When I was a kid, we could dig tunnels in the snow.
> Or the prediction of 50 million climate refugees by 2010.
The time frame in these things are always hard to predict. I have the unfortunate feeling that we will see this in our lifetime.
The ignorance of John Shimkus and Ted Stevens and Hank Johnson are one reason I'm conservative. It's better to give the government less power rather than more power.
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Or the prediction of 50 million climate refugees by 2010.
How do we know that didn't happen?
David in Cal wrote:
The ignorance of John Shimkus and Ted Stevens and Hank Johnson are one reason I'm conservative. It's better to give the government less power rather than more power.
If you think what Republicans are doing right now is motivated by a desire for less governmental power, you're seriously kidding yourself.
David - Alleged motives are less significant than actual actions. Actions show that Republicans tend to move toward less government control. Dems move toward more government control. Some examples:
Trump eliminated a great many regulations. One can argue whether these regs should have been eliminated. But, there's no doubt that Trump's action reduced a lot of government power.
Look at ObamaCare. The Dems could have passed a law simply giving health insurance to the 40 million uninsured Americans. Instead they passed a law giving the federal government immense control over health insurance and over health care.
Consider guns. Democrats enact more government restrictions on guns. Republicans enact fewer restrictions.
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Oh come on, David -- you can't think of how Republicans/conservatives want to use the power of government to control people?
I can think of a half-dozen ways without even trying.
BTW, the govt can't just "give" people health insurance. Private insurers don't want to insure everyone -- only those who are profitable. Many people they won't insure at all.
David - The government gives people health insurance in many European countries and Canada. The government does this by being the insurance company.
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David: Republicans were, of course, incredibly opposed to the "public option" of the US govt acting as an insurance company (even though it made the most sense). Still are. Even a lot of Democrats couldn't stomach it. Unfortunately.
Ways Republicans/conservatives want or have wanted to use the power of government to control people:
Banning abortion
Banning gay marriage
Banning sodomy
Banning flag burning
Banning kneeling during national anthem
Banning birth control
Banning pornography
Controlling/suppressing nonviolent public protests (as this past summer)
Gerrymandering
Voter ID laws (some would say; not me)
It only took me a minute to come up with these....
BTW, I do not buy that Trump's reduction of regulations mean less government control. In many cases they mean more government control.
Example: if a reduction in regulations on smokestack pollution controls means less "control" on industry, it means *MORE* control on the public, who are then subjected to the effects of more pollution and suffer its consequences, health and otherwise.
Here less control for a few means more control on others.
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