How to hide a pandemic

It’s all about messaging…. People won’t be worried about the COVID damage if they are 

fed enough propaganda

Four years in, the pandemic response (such as it is) has devolved into propaganda. Public Health agencies have emphasized Public Relations as the primary tool for crisis management, and a crop of “science communicators” has sprung up out of obscurity to help shepherd public opinion and guide it to a happy place. Reflections on the failure of the CDC, for example, have focused on a need to revamp scientific communication rather than do anything of substance.

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we would have benefited from reacting in a timely manner to specific pieces of information that were unquestionably bad news for the trajectory of the pandemic. For example the recognition of aerosol spread, the possibility of reinfection, the rapid evolution of the virus, the possibility that vaccine-only strategy would fail to bring the pandemic to an end, the accumulation of long COVID within the population, and widespread infections of children leading to long-term health risks. These were all crucial pieces of information that painted a dire picture for the trajectory of the pandemic, yet they were not given the urgent attention they deserved. Worse still, each one of these risks was pointed out, months and years before they were acknowledged by public health.