Pandemic denial: Why some people can't accept Covid-19's realities

[UpInArms]

When adults have been raised in an environment where unfounded beliefs were a part of their upbringing, they are much more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and hoaxes. They also tend to make decisions based on hunches and preconceived ideas and biases as opposed to using factual information.

Much more at link:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/16/health/pandemic-covid-19-denial-mental-health-wellness/index.html

[enough]

1. Also, they are unable to accept their own vulnerability. It's too frightening.

That’s why they have to constantly assert toughness. It’s fear.

[iamateacher]

2. Great article

Explains Evangelical support of Trump.

[lindysalsagal]

7. Explains religion.

Basically, you grow up gullible and remain that way.

[42bambi]

3. Accepting or facing reality is often terribly difficult for some, interrupting their

quiet and perfect little utopia. Conspiracy theories are simple and takes no curiosity. It's so much easier for them to ignore reality, having no interest or desire to change. And now with Qanon - how do we address that?

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. A couple of other reasons not mentioned in the article.

First off is that a lot of people really do not personally know someone who has died from this.

Another is, and this is going to sound insensitive, but please bear with me, not enough celebrities of any sort have gotten sick and died with this. Herman Cain seems to be the highest profile person so far, but until a whole bunch more household names at the very least get sick, it will remain all too easy to keep on thinking this doesn't matter, isn't important to me.

Yes, I know Tom Hanks and his wife got it. Happily, they both recovered quite nicely. A handful of others have gotten it, and any number of people have tested positive, which isn't always the same as getting sick.

Nope, what is needed is for this disease to take out several high profile people. Please don't think I'm actively wishing this on anyone. Other than perhaps those who continue to believe it's a hoax. Those people I don't care so much about. But if Famous Actors 1,2, and 3 were struck down, if Well-Known Rock Stars 4, 5, and 6, and maybe a handful of international jet-set celebrities were to get this, maybe then more people would finally understand how serious it is. Until then, this remains something that happens at a distance for most of us.

Remember, that while 170,000 dead from this is a high number, it's still a tiny percentage of the population. If I did the division correctly is 0.0005%. Five one hundredths of a percent.

[uponit7771]

6. +1, otherwise it looks like if a person is rich etc they don't die. In 1918 it was similar a base ..

... ball player that was high profile died of the disease and it got real for a lot of people to wear masks

[lindysalsagal]

8. No one's saying what killed frump's brother, yet.

I believe that if it were anything else, they'd be shouting it from the rooftops. "Stroke!" "Heart attack!"

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. The fact that Robert Trump's cause of death

hasn't been made public means pretty much nothing, other than the cause of death hasn't been made public.

I have read more than one news story about someone dying that doesn't say what the cause of death was. Sometimes families want to keep it private.

[zipplewrath]

5. More emphasis on personal knowledge

It is true that people tend to put more emphasis and trust in information that they know and understand. So when faced with information to the contrary, that they don't understand, they will tend dismiss the information they don't understand in favor of that which they do. Even more so when such a choice is more favorable to them, or more comforting. It is a problem with highly educated people, especially when information from outside their area of expertise conflicts with information within their expertise. It gets vastly worse with "low information" individuals. It is often reflected in statements such as "I know what I know". They have a very small bubble of knowledge and beliefs, often quite narrow in scope, and it can be nearly impossible to pierce that bubble without direct personal experience.

[lindysalsagal]

9. Your closed-bubble theory seems true to me.

They fear and hate the feeling of confusion and lack of understanding so much that they'll go to any length to protect "who I am today" and not allow that to expand or change.

To me, that's the definition of "aggressively stupid." "Willful ignorance" is the more polite way to say it.