I doubt that would work. People would just call it fake news.
I recall several months ago the Chinese crematorium controversy, where some people suggested China was hiding the numbers of bodies (to disguise the coronavirus death toll). We would see videos of basically unused crematoria, and others showing lots of “business”. Either or both sets were probably several years old, of course. (Right now in Italy people are showing almost empty hospital videos to show that COVID is “not a big deal”, said videos being from several years ago.) I never got to the bottom of the crematorium controversy, and frankly didn’t care enough to do the research: we knew China would lie about the death rate because they didn’t want to get embarrassed (or something worse). A few videos wouldn’t even give us good data. The WHO and other organizations couldn’t get their data either, but the death rate was less important than taking the steps needed to curb the virus.
Totally. The masses need to be shocked in order for something visual to change their behavior and beliefs. The lack of gruesome symptoms is another insidious tool of this virus.
It is obscene when a person volunteers an ‘other’ to die. Offer yourself up to die, not me. Obscene, I tell you. Obscene and reprehensible. I ask all Dopers to call out posters when they do that-after all, we are supposed to not be jerks.
Very well said. And in a sane world of thoughtful humans you’d be right. But …
I’m sure by now most of us have seen ads run by the various anti-smoking campaigns that show somebody speaking through their tracheotomy or lying bald and frail in their hospital bed with advanced lung cancer. With pictures of them once young and strong and now dying or dead at age 50-something if that old. Here’s the archetypical ad I’m thinking of, blurred because it’s a bit shocking to the genteel reader:
Heart-tugging stuff, especially if you have dealt with cancer in your own extended family.
But is it effective? How many people don’t start smoking or quit smoking from those PSAs? I don’t know. My gut is “darn few”.
I do agree with the OP’s contention that until this becomes emotionally real it won’t be real enough for most Americans to alter their behaviors enough.
I just don’t think a COVID morgue channel or COVID crippled survivor channel will make it believable enough to the people we need to convert into believers. For all the reasons said so well by so many posters above.
I suppose one could argue that something has already done this effectively enough, for the countless millions who have indeed altered their behaviors significantly, even without having been touched directly by death or severe damage in their own household. Particularly when you see language like ‘convert into believers’, not to mention charged labels like ‘covidiot’ and ‘maskhole’, there does look like a lot of emotion already in play.
I would have to agree with this: if it were Ebola visiting our shores, people would be social distancing on their own - guaranteed. Higher mortality rate, and it’s a brutal way to go. Even with people who are symptomatic, most people just feel like crap for a while - nobody obviously wants to experience that, but that’s not enough to scare people into completely isolating themselves from everyone and everything.
Right – unlike broadcast franchise licensees, YouTube does not have a Public Service mandate. So someone who mostly gets their infotainment from such sources would see much fewer PSAs than someone who consumes more regular radio/TV (be it directly off the air, or the on-air signal conveyed through cable/satellite/streaming).
I suppose, get everyone to say to themselves "OK! OK! We get it! We will wear masks, we will stay home, we will avoid big gatherings, do whatever it takes for however long it takes! "
Sorry, no, we’re NOT going to get everyone there.
Right – the story is out there and it all has had effect, just that it has not worked to the point that would satisfy some of us.
I suppose that there is among some people a sense of “how come we are not getting from across the country the same sort of alarmed pulling-our-hair out OMG WE’RE DOOMED, DOOMED I TELL YOU reporting that we were getting out of NYC in March/April??”
Well, not to be too callous about it: in November, as opposed to April, there is something else consuming all the OMG WE’RE DOOMED bandwidth in both the regualr media and the various online bubbles.
Also, as asahi mentions, in much of the country it has not gotten to the point of imminent collapse just yet.
A lot of people are not going to react until the pileup of bodies is happening in their home town where they see them.
The science seems to indicate that conservatives are more motivated by fear than liberals. That’s why the right uses so much fear-based messaging. The one thing Trump wouldn’t treat like something to fear was the pandemic, because it’s a real threat, unlike the other things he pushed as “out to get you.”
So it’s those very fear motivated people who are the most likely to not wear masks. Studies show that one reason may be that it isn’t a personalized danger. Right leaning people tend to rate the risk of contracting COVID higher if it is personalized as some evil that is out to get them, rather than a natural phenomenon that doesn’t care who it infects. Left leaning treat the risk the same either way.
Granted, I got all this from Rebecca Watson and “Skepchick,” who discuss these studies on her YouTube channel and website. Rather than fill the screen with videos, I’ll just include normal links (which include transcripts and sources):
My grandfather died of pneumonia when he was 94 and they had no problem listing pneumonia as the cause of death. There’s no reason COVID should be any different.
We don’t have a problem determining COVID as cause of death. We have a problem with a political faction full of people who emphatically don’t want COVID listed as a cause of death, ever.
Not at all. What conservatives want is avoid negative press for themselves and Trump. To achieve that, the subordinate goal becomes to persuade folks that COVID is no big deal. And that is the message they are using the personalized fear and loathing to sell. The liberals, once again, are coming directly to your home to enslave you by wearing masks. It’s a direct assault on your rights! They’ll make you breathe CO2! Be afraid, be verrrrry verrrrrry afraid!
The fear-based marketing doesn’t necessarily correlate to a realistic fear. In fact, it’s better if it’s a fake fear that nobody can actually reassure. Did I lose 2% of my freedom overnight? I’m not sure, but gosh, Fox says it’s true, so I’d better go buy more ammo.
That’s all rather silly. “Freedumb from masks” messaging isn’t about fear of libs coming into your home with lock on masks. “Loathing” sure but they aren’t synonyms.
oh believe me there are several “real Americans” and “real American news” on Facebook who are telling people that hospitals are lying to get more money and the governments lying to get control and the mask don’t work … I hear it several times a day. from my relatives …
Health officials 9 months ago thought people fiddling with improperly worn masks would do more harm than good.
You can’t slap “fear” on anything someone is resistant to or concerned about. It’s something that makes you feel good about, because you don’t have stupid fears like that other guy, but it isn’t useful for understanding what’s going on.