this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 162 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

And for a while during Covid, we beat the 9/11 immediate death toll for several weeks straight, every single day.

But it didn’t matter one fucking bit, because we care more about optics than numbers.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 74 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The attitude was off the charts odd.

People yelled. People refused to wear masks. People (non-patients) were hauled out of emergency rooms by security. People accused healthcare of lying about diagnoses. People accused healthcare of being paid off to lie about all covid diagnoses (by whom is far less clear). People went so far as to tear breathing apparatuses off the “loved” one it was helping breathe. People won the country a full hospital ban on visitors that didn’t fully go away until very recently. People died of covid or covid complications and their own people still didn’t believe Covid existed.

And why? Because they didn’t want to wear a mask? Because they didn’t want to stay home from work when sick? (Remember, everyone mostly dosed themselves with cold medicine and then took their crud into work, infecting everyone, in before times.)

[–] turtlesareneat@piefed.ca 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You weren't paying attention to the alt media igniting and fanning the flames as the pandemic unfolded, it was like Covid itself started broadcasting and posting on forums. Unbelievable shit. Felt like one of those "wacky wednesday" books but with, you know, more people choking to death on their own blood.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It still didn’t make sense.

I knew healthcare was the main testing ground for vaccines. It made sense. Someone had to go first. It also made sense to deliver it asap. Staff was bleeding out of hospitals. Staff did die. Some cases of workers surviving only to find themselves widows or widowers because they brought it home, near the beginning. I think a lot more staff would’ve left and simply waited it out at home if not for the vaccine. The vaccine kept hospitals open imo.

But sure. Bill Gates nanobots in a shot! That one was my favorite.

[–] Seleni@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

I mean, the same thing happened during the Spanish Flu Pandemic. There were even anti-mask leagues, as I recall. We’ve always been quite stupid as a nation.

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Genuinely speaking, considering this same shit happened in other flus and other public health emergencies, and like look at the ebola thing in Africa rn..

I think most humans are just big unhappy about things they feel they can’t control, and want to ignore them until they go away. That’s played out historically with doctors just poo pooing germ theory because they didn't understand how it could be the case, and didn’t care to look into it, even as their own patients died by the dozens.

and.. Look.. I'm very uncomfortable saying this because I don't actually view people this way, but the dumber you are the less you understand the world around you and the less control you likely feel you have over things. The more likely you are to just be obstinate about shit if it goes against what you think you know. People are stubborn because they are stupid and don’t understand what they are fighting with and against. And unfortunately education campaigns aren't a silver bullet, neither is literally anything, including over 100 years advancement.

[–] Rothe@piefed.social 4 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

The way it played out in the US during covid was very different to how it played out in most other countries. This is not "how it has always been everywhere". The anti-science mania during covid in the US was manufactured and deliberate.

[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 2 points 11 hours ago

That is part of the purpose behind the original anti vax campaign, to undermine a fundamentally long term accepted science. It’s a foot in the door for overturning anything “proven” by academia/science, in addition to being a learning course.

Just the other day, I was listening to a (maga) gentlemen tell me that he’s steering clear of Tylenol because it’s unsafe. He’ll only take acetaminophen. (I told him, he did not care. In his mind, they are two different meds).

So the original intent is working. The principle of the anti vax push is now imbued in American society. Canada too, now, sadly. I recently read about another measles outbreak up there.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 1 points 10 hours ago

But the same forces are at play everywhere, it's just that in the US you have this extremely powerful arm of the media that straight up pushes lies. Those lies, however, play on the same fears and cognitive biases.

[–] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You know what is a silver bullet? Silver bullets.

[–] ButteryMonkey@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Instructions unclear; ingested colloidal silver for years and turned into papa smurf.

That’s humans.

👽

[–] radix@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

1 death is sad.

100 deaths is a tragedy.

10,000 deaths is a statistic.

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But 3,000 deaths is a pretense for an invasion if you want it to be.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There's still like 200 US covid deaths a ~~day~~ month too lol

[–] nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago

200 per month, worldwide. But that’s still a lot

Human only see big thing.

Human not see statistics.

Human think this maybe great filter.