I've seen several threads like this now, about people denying the reality of covid, even as it spreads around them or even when they are sick themselves (read it!). I have some half-baked thoughts about the psychology of this. 1/n https://twitter.com/TheBlondeRN/status/1328378945172074499

First, and what people seem to discuss the most is partisanship. Sure, that's definitely part of it. But politicians try to make anything that disadvantages them partisan and often fail.

Then, there's the fractured and algorithm-driven media. We're not all watching the same evening news lead off with body counts every night, as was the case in the 1960s w/ the Vietnam War. People don't want to see it, and many probably don't see the numbers very often.

Then I thought about work by @deborahasmall & others on how people struggle to process anonymized large-scale harm. I'm sure that's part of it - we kind of react the same to small- & large-scale disease. But we do see personalized instances, often heart-breaking, portrayed.

I have another thought, an unraveling false signal. It seems, as a society, for whatever combination of reasons, we are unable to treat the pandemic with the seriousness & alarm that's actually warranted. There *seems* to be no mass mobilization or mass panic.

Of course, there is -- in the medical field. Occasionally news of morgue trucks and mass graves breaks through. But most of it remains easily ignored by most people. Instead, they look around to what's most salient -- public figures, friends, neighbors. What do they see?

Everything seems to be pretty calm, actually. The world outside doesn't look like we'd expect in a pandemic movie. Neighbors and coworkers seem fine. People are also interacting with fewer people, so they're less likely to hear about covid deaths.

No funerals, because of covid, means we're not hearing about people in the more distant part of our social circle who have died. Stigma may also mean less news. Think of the person who caught covid and infected their elderly relative, who then died -- will they talk about it?

So, many people, reading the cues they see, know that in theory it's bad, but kind of feel like it can't be that bad. So when you talk to them, *you* feel like you're more stressed about it than others are, and you may question whether you're overreacting: pluralistic ignorance.

It's the opposite of a mob mentality, where the panic of some people creates panic in others, even if they don't know why they are panicking. Here, the unwarranted calm of the people we encounter may make us less concerned than we should be.

Trump's fault? Sure. But you don't see Schumer or Pelosi or Biden or your D governor or your D mayor on the news, in tears, haggard, desparate, pleading, do you? You may in a few weeks, once it's too late, but for now, mostly not.

So, for many people, the rhetoric they hear from the Democrats about how awful covid is and how much danger we or our elderly relatives are in, just doesn't ring true. It doesn't match what we see outside, or even what the politicians' demeanor (and sometimes, actions) signals.

If it was really that bad, wouldn't everyone *else* be freaking out? rioting in the streets? boarding themselves up in their homes? And if they're not, why should I? It's just politicians exagerating, trying to make us panic. So, whatever. And that influences others in turn.

I live a few blocks from the University of Chicago hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in the city. It looks mostly the same from the outside. I have little sense of the heroism, the desparation, the suffering, the death that happens inside. I bike past it on sunny days!

But in April, sitting at my dining room table, working on revising manuscripts or grading assignments, I heard ambulance sirens. And every time I heard one, I thought about the pandemic and the possibility that a covid patient was being taken to the hospital & might not return.

So, if you feel like you're the only one, and wondering why everyone else isn't freaking out, and wondering if you're over-reacting -- I'm freaking out too, even if I often don't show it. And I'm wondering why everyone seems so calm! I'm questioning if I've gone nuts.

I'm starting to hear more ambulance sirens again, there will be more & more in the coming weeks. We need a way to help people "hear the sirens," to feel the scope of the danger, to align the cues we see with the reality, before the actual ambulances are driving down our street.

Postscript:
On a bike ride a few days ago, I passed a house with a sign outside:
HE LIED,
MY MOTHER DIED!
I stopped in my tracks, lump in my throat. Nothing else that day had reminded me.