Why we fight, and my perceived role

…and never forget that epidemiology is boring.

If you follow me here, there’s a good bet it’s because you already follow me on Twitter where I’ve been talking about all the many crazy facets of Covid since early March of 2020.

It was immediately clear to me that we were in a mass hysteria. That is, by the time I even noticed what was going on (I had been in Turkey at the top of March) and did my first tweet on it on March 10, I believe the hysteria was well under way.

Now, as a broadly trained scientist I’m good at data and I COULD have dived into the epidemiological data. If the hysterical are saying irrational things, then surely the way to fight this was by correcting those irrational claims: Correct widespread confusion between CFR and IFR, accurately peg the efficacy of lockdowns, educate folks on the inefficacy of masks to slow aerosols, and so on. And at Twitter I certainly did my share of that.

Doing that was important, but NOT because one was going to change anyone’s mind who’s already in the Covid Cult. They weren’t budging, and may never ever budge. (And THAT’S something I’m keen to scientifically elucidate.)

It was nevertheless important to counter their irrational claims for two reasons.

(1) CONFIDENCE

There was a significant population of folks who could feel something was … off. They felt like they were in Alice in Wonderland. They were telling themselves each day, “Am I going crazy? Why is suddenly 2+2=5?” But they didn’t know the real data and evidence. They were only hearing the 24/7 propaganda. Our fighting the irrational claims educated them and gave them needed confidence. “Phew. I’m not crazy.” Those folks then spread that knowledge and confidence to others.

(2) FENCE

There was also a huge population either on the fence as to what to believe, or not even much paying attention. They’re the great middle. They’re not quite the sheep. They may be acting like sheep, but they’re just following along without any concomitant righteous religious baggage. Countering the irrational mainstream claims of The Science CAN get to them, and turn them.

So, fighting the irrational claims, one by one, day upon day, IS part of the battle.

But I decided at the start it wouldn’t be MY main role in the battle.

First and foremost, epidemiology is boring. Now, because bad epidemiology is now connected to the greatest threat to liberty the world has seen in a generation, I’ve just about convinced myself several times that epidemiology is interesting. But each time I quickly slapped myself out of that. Intrinsically interesting to me it is not! (I AM intellectually interested in viruses evolved means of transmission, though.)

Second, I quickly found that there were LOTS of smart folks concentrating on countering the principal claims of the mainstream narrative, many who I quickly became associated with on Team Rationality (Rational Ground, Pandata, Unherd, AIER,…).

Third, I have a lot of experience at the border of human psychology on the one hand, and technologies, complex emergent systems, culture, etc. on the other hand. Where I’d be disproportionately useful in our Covid predicament is making sense of mass hysteria, totalitarianism, the valuable role of free expression, etc. My next book — EXPRESSLY HUMAN: Decoding the Language of Emotion — also happens to provide the first step in this direction.

And, finally, fourth, it’s exactly these psycho-societal phenomena that we’re being smothered by, and understanding them will surely somehow be helpful in overcoming them. Furthermore, as these same forces undergird totalitarianism generally, there’s even bigger game afoot: A grand unifying theory of totalitarianism.

So THAT’S why I’m (one of the only scientists) focusing on the psycho-societal side of the Covid debacle. THAT’S why I founded the research institute FreeX. THAT’S why my Science Moment video series since episode 52 (and now at episode 120) has focused almost entirely on psycho-societal issues rather than epidemiological ones.

Our resistance movement has been blessed by so many diverse talents and areas of expertise, and I believe many of them share the same feeling I have: that we each want to wield our best weapon against the multi-headed hydra that is quickly enveloping the free world.