Posted on by Californiacontrarian

The Covid Dichotomy


As was apparent to me from the very beginning there is a wide discrepancy on how differently individuals act with regards to Covid. Some of our friends would not come over to our house for “a bring your own food for dinner” in our back yard. Another friend, who is religious, has not been to live church for over a year, even though the church service is outdoors, with masks, and social distancing. 

Personally I have continued to have lunch with friends – albeit mostly in an outdoor setting. From the beginning of Covid my wife and I have continued to go to church, initially indoors, then outdoors and now indoors again both with distancing. We carried on as usual for both Thanksgiving and Christmas with our kids and grandkids from out of town. For the past year we have continued to babysit our young grandchildren who go to preschool for half-day.

Why this Covid dichotomy? Obviously the reasons are multifactorial, with varied reasons for different folks. 

I just happened to read an article from the New York Times by David Leonhardt (yes, I do occasionally read things from the NYT, whereas I do not ever watch CNN or MSNBC – both of which have suffered recent dramatic drops in their ratings.) Mr. Leonhardt postulated that this dichotomy was primarily a Democrat-Republican thing, but personally I think this is an over-simplification of something more basic. 

I think that there are two things which have basically determined these dichotomous individual behaviors with reference to Covid.

First: As I have stated multiple times before, in general, individuals are basically either logical thinkers (frontal lobe) or emotional thinkers (midbrain). Granted logical thinkers tend to be conservative whereas emotional thinkers are liberal. With Covid, some can only focus on how serious this coronavirus infection can be . . .”if I get it, I could die!” On the other hand others can think more logically . . . “if I catch the virus, there is a good chance that I will be either minimally symptomatic or asymptomatic, and the risk of me dying from Covid is much less than one percent. Life is too short, and so I’ll take that very small risk.”

Second: Just as important, is where are individuals getting their basic Covid information. Most are getting it from local TV news, local newspapers, or from friends, most of whom are probably also getting their info from local sources. I point that  out because local sources are doing a piss-poor job of actually educating anyone. (When I asked one of the local “newspaper” columnists about this, he responded that his job was to report, not to educate or opine.) 

The following is from that same  Leonhardt article, Franklin Templeton-Gallup Economics of Recovery Study(NYT):

When asked what percent of Covid patients needed hospitalization, 69% of Democrats said more than twenty percent needed hospitalization, 51% of Republicans said more than twenty percent, and 60% of Independents said the same thing. To me these numbers signify just how dramatically misinformed the public actually is. (Amazingly 41% of Democrats thought that the chance of hospitalization for a Covid patient was . . . are you ready for this . . . more than 50%!!) No wonder these individuals are paralyzed with fear. The actual hospitalization rate is about 1%. 

How could so many people be so drastically misinformed?! 

Again from Leonhardt:

There is also the same basic sort of misinformation when it comes to the risk of school children and going back to school. Democrats are more likely to exaggerate Covid’s toll on young people and to believe that children account for a meaningful share of all Covid deaths. In reality, Americans under 18 account for only 0.04 percent of Covid deaths (4 in 10,000).

How could these individuals be so misinformed? Again I blame this on the news sources, both TV and newspapers. And as long as they are “not in the education business.” (because optimism does not sell newspapersor boost TV ratings), this dichotomy will continue.

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