Another Virus Has Been Exported To The US

[TC Shuts Up]

Monkeypox. No known cure. 10% death rate, much higher than COVID-19. Believed to have been spread in airplane bathrooms and breathing the same air of person infected. Rand Paul better ask Fauci whether he had something to do with it. Why does anyone fly anymore? Remember when the government said you couldn't get COVID from person to person contact and on airplanes? Close all the borders.

Horrible pictures of monkeypox infections at this link.

https://www.statnews.com/2021/07/20/mor ... -cdc-says/

[jadednihilist]

Scientists (and I'm also guilty of this) have this bad habit of patronizingly communicating science-based recommendations to the public without the appropriate caveats. Part of this has to do with how easily distorted these caveats can become inside certain echo chambers; i.e. people hear only what they want to hear and ignore the rest. Instead, what really should be emphasized is that science describes the tools we use to infer knowledge, rather than treating science as knowledge itself.

It is reasonable to expect early recommendations of a novel virus to be completely wrong. We have to adapt accordingly as more independent studies gradually accrete stronger evidence to drive revised recommendations. That's not at all representative of unethical or nefarious behavior, but a natural byproduct of the way scientists try to increase our boundaries of understanding.

I think that science communicators should work on communicating these nuances, caveats, and uncertainties so that people aren't blindsided by inevitable changes in the messaging.

A meteorological analogy would be with forecasting the strength, impacts, and location of a major hurricane landfall. The National Hurricane Center track represents their best estimate of a 60% probability of the track of the storm's center. They adjust this track multiple times per day based on new data/evidence. The forecast errors aren't intentional, but they are inevitable.

As much has science has advanced over human history, it's good to remind ourselves that the tools which we have are still extremely limited and the fraction of what we actually know is still infinitesimally small. It's only logical to assume that there are undiscovered batches of evidence that will completely upend our understanding of how things work.

[Robert Faygo]

Can you provide a tldr version of the above post?

[Deleted User 14896]

I agree with what jadednihilist said.

But how many folks would be glued to the Boob Tube if the newscaster and weatherman wasn't talking Gloom and Doom? Storm of the Century? 500 year event? Etc.

[jadednihilist]

Can you provide a tldr version of the above post?

My bad... may I present myself as Exhibit A. Long story short, my reply is in response to the notion that Fauci or the scientific community has been committing fraud. I think that's a byproduct of the big disconnect in how we are all taught that science is done vs how it's really done. I feel if science communication was both clearer and more transparent, we'd go a long way in debunking false narratives and conspiracy theories.

[jadednihilist]

I agree with what jadednihilist said.

But how many folks would be glued to the Boob Tube if the newscaster and weatherman wasn't talking Gloom and Doom? Storm of the Century? 500 year event? Etc.

You've hit the essence as to why I chose research over broadcasting. Hysteria certainly sells, but television news funding models seem to be based fighting over an increasingly smaller pie.

[Robert Faygo]

My bad... may I present myself as Exhibit A. Long story short, my reply is in response to the notion that Fauci or the scientific community has been committing fraud. I think that's a byproduct of the big disconnect in how we are all taught that science is done vs how it's really done. I feel if science communication was both clearer and more transparent, we'd go a long way in debunking false narratives and conspiracy theories.

Thanks - that helps!