Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?
- Thread starter wanderingthomas
- Start date
Found out yesterday how very easy it is to slip into the panic/hysteria/irrational mode if you are not guarded enough when information comes in. The cause for it was this recent interview with an "expert" on Joe Rogan:
Michael Osterholm
Even though I knew the facts, the guy came across as very convincing in his assessment, which left me a bit scared/hooked afterwards. The first story that got me hooked was his claim that "somebody" from his staff, "received a Text message" from "a friend" working in "the largest hospital" in Milan Italy, who in return received an "alarming" E-Mail from another unspecified "physician" working in this hospital. This unspecified physician told a frightening story in the Mail to that friend of the other "somebody", that the staff in the hospital has "to choose who will live and who has to die".
So that was what Osterholm explained, pointing out how serious Cornona is with this story. Certainly a story that easily appeals to panic thinking. Notice that the "Expert" Osterholm provided no facts there, just hearsay, apparently from an unspecified "somebody", removed from Osterholm by 3 unspecified persons in between. Even if that story is true, I think there is a good case to be made that my "fast/emotional thinking" (alla Kahneman) was activated with this story, totally overwriting the slow thinking, based on statistical and sound data. Even if what was said from the "Expert" there is true, that doesn't mean this is sound data in order to have a grasp on what is really going on. For example, it could be that many of the people infected with the Coronavirus in Italy where/are purposefully gathered/concentrated together in large regional hospitals for treatment and isolation. So naturally, in such a hospital you will encounter much more sick and dying people, because they are concentrated in that small place from a much wider population.
Osterholm also provided other "expert" opinions and frightening figures and pointed out that he pretty much wrote about the exact same scenario in his book a couple of years ago, that is now playing out in real life with Corona!? Including that it starts in China and so on...
Anyway, my emotional based fast thinking/feeling that was activated by this interview lasted for about a day now and I think I'm coming out of it again currently. It is like you are under a strange emotional fueled umbrella/thinking. That really goes to show how even people here can lose it very quickly, if they don't pay strict attention and avoid the emotional hooks being thrown out like candy right now everywhere.
How much worse is it then for people in the mainstream, who are now constantly boarded with similar emotional fueled fast thinking stuff, without any critical filter/backup to reset? I certainly feel for those people because it is very hard to come out of this thinking/feeling once you are in it, if you are constantly bombarded with this stuff and are living in the mainstream.
Michael Osterholm
Even though I knew the facts, the guy came across as very convincing in his assessment, which left me a bit scared/hooked afterwards. The first story that got me hooked was his claim that "somebody" from his staff, "received a Text message" from "a friend" working in "the largest hospital" in Milan Italy, who in return received an "alarming" E-Mail from another unspecified "physician" working in this hospital. This unspecified physician told a frightening story in the Mail to that friend of the other "somebody", that the staff in the hospital has "to choose who will live and who has to die".
So that was what Osterholm explained, pointing out how serious Cornona is with this story. Certainly a story that easily appeals to panic thinking. Notice that the "Expert" Osterholm provided no facts there, just hearsay, apparently from an unspecified "somebody", removed from Osterholm by 3 unspecified persons in between. Even if that story is true, I think there is a good case to be made that my "fast/emotional thinking" (alla Kahneman) was activated with this story, totally overwriting the slow thinking, based on statistical and sound data. Even if what was said from the "Expert" there is true, that doesn't mean this is sound data in order to have a grasp on what is really going on. For example, it could be that many of the people infected with the Coronavirus in Italy where/are purposefully gathered/concentrated together in large regional hospitals for treatment and isolation. So naturally, in such a hospital you will encounter much more sick and dying people, because they are concentrated in that small place from a much wider population.
Osterholm also provided other "expert" opinions and frightening figures and pointed out that he pretty much wrote about the exact same scenario in his book a couple of years ago, that is now playing out in real life with Corona!? Including that it starts in China and so on...
Anyway, my emotional based fast thinking/feeling that was activated by this interview lasted for about a day now and I think I'm coming out of it again currently. It is like you are under a strange emotional fueled umbrella/thinking. That really goes to show how even people here can lose it very quickly, if they don't pay strict attention and avoid the emotional hooks being thrown out like candy right now everywhere.
How much worse is it then for people in the mainstream, who are now constantly boarded with similar emotional fueled fast thinking stuff, without any critical filter/backup to reset? I certainly feel for those people because it is very hard to come out of this thinking/feeling once you are in it, if you are constantly bombarded with this stuff and are living in the mainstream.
Last edited:
One of my patients works in a prison (social worker) and she told me that its the same here.
Well, as Andromeda said, the kids are probably loving it.
They certainly are, if I still was a child, I surely would be (I would go skiing for sure!). But their parents certainly are much less... It's gonna get hard for them to deal with the situation over the next few weeks. At least for those who are alone/working or in family in which both mum and dad work. I think that it could even be a nightmare for many of them.
However, as it is about from nurseries to high-schools, I guess that students in review period might not love it either. I don't even know how things go for stranger students who live in it.
anka
The Living Force
Sure. It can happen to anyone without a good sounding board and feedback. That's why the Cs warned us about it specifically. Remember all the stuff around 9-11, the WMDs, the "babies dumped out of incubators" and such? Gov. officials stood right up in public and lied until their pants ought to have combusted. And they still do it, and so do a lot of people who are "agents" and "agents provocateur". It's all about hooking people with emotional paramoralisms and then anchoring them in delusion. Gaslighting.
But, there are many regular folks out there who are still keeping their heads.
So, we carry on supporting one another and see what happens.
Milan is pretty big, I lived there for 4 years. I checked my former colleagues fb pages a few days ago and today. Some of them chose to stay at home. Most them are still posting on social media. They're okay. They are supporting the lockdown and sharing stories of doctors choosing patients for the ICU beds. Also, that they're short in material such as masks. The worst contagion here is the hysteria. That will surely make you sick.
That ICU beds get a filter is stuff that you don't talk about. But now, it's in the news. It's not the first time it happens though.
How much the hysteria has contributed to break down people's defences?
I saw the same in an earlier post/tweet FB, and something similar here:
Coronavirus Pandemic: Apocalypse Now! Or exaggerated scare story?
Day to day, 3D me is still curious about the certainty one side or the other. Plausible arguments all around. Taking the longer view, not exactly as a 'me' because what form of 'me' makes sense when awareness is extended backwards and forwards in time, this chaotic stage is a bonanza for...
cassiopaea.org
All the changes coming in have also created a lot of thoughts in me. Personally I have done more physical exercises to maintain more grounding and I think I need to keep that up for some days and then see what happens.
dredger
The Living Force
Hi all, just had an idea I let you all think about :
Launch a new hashtag on twitter like "#DebtForHospitals" (or find something better),and the message would be : For 2020, as the european law authorize it and looking at the coronavirus thread, the interests on countries debts for all (EU) countries will be redirected to healthcare expenses. (and will be dropped and not to be paid later, of course)
At least im pretty sure that many many people would thumb this, who know which snowball effect this idea could lead to ?
And i'm sure that this would annoy a lot of these not nice people who rule the world, or the PTB if you prefer.
I do not have twitter, so can't I, but at least, it's worth it to give the idea (!?)
Launch a new hashtag on twitter like "#DebtForHospitals" (or find something better),and the message would be : For 2020, as the european law authorize it and looking at the coronavirus thread, the interests on countries debts for all (EU) countries will be redirected to healthcare expenses. (and will be dropped and not to be paid later, of course)
At least im pretty sure that many many people would thumb this, who know which snowball effect this idea could lead to ?
And i'm sure that this would annoy a lot of these not nice people who rule the world, or the PTB if you prefer.
I do not have twitter, so can't I, but at least, it's worth it to give the idea (!?)
anka
The Living Force
This is so much worth repeating & sharing!
BTW, does anyone know how it turned out in China with those high dose Vit C treatments? Has there been any sort of conclusive article published? It surprised me that it actually got some media publicity initially but I guess they will quickly bury it.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: NewScientist has become a disgusting Leftist propaganda rag.
www.newscientist.com
Why the coronavirus is different from flu and warrants major action
People who argue that covid-19 is no bigger a problem than flu ignore the fact that we lack natural immunity and have no vaccines in our armoury