The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167208 Message #4037337
Posted By: robomatic
03-Mar-20 - 02:18 PM
Thread Name: BS: New rules for the coming pandemic
Subject: RE: BS: New rules for the coming pandemic
Just now, like within the last ten minutes, a regular Starbucks goer and a well known community member came up to me and said there were (large number over 1K) coronavirus deaths in WA state. I noted that he passed this off as a new fact. I asked him where he heard it at the same time as I did a search on the internet. He said he'd heard it on FOX (TV) news. I could not verify any of this and made sure he was aware. He was also conflating coronavirus with flu which people are doing because of the description of symptoms. But his blithe passing this off uncritically is a sign of the way things are going with people and the spread of factoids vis web. And he's not even Donuel. He asked me on a scale of 1 to 10 I how concerned was I. And I said for today I'm at 1. If I learn that anyone I know knows someone who's got the coronavirus (which is not the same thing as flu) I'll jump it to 2.5. If I hear that anyone in Alaska has been diagnosed, maybe a 2.