Observations about Covid, vaccine effectiveness, media port…

In the video above, @rubinreport uses Johnathon Isaac’s response about being unvaccinated to correctly encourage people to
- avoid summarily demonizing people
- have a measured, good-faith interpretation of other people's potentially good-faith “rational” motivations/actions
2/

I agree. Jonathon Isaac was very impressive in that interview.

We won’t make progress as a society by engaging in the same behavior that helped create the problem. And : 3/ https://t.co/hUS9Afm0Z7

Yes, fighting the temptation to name call (or "own the Cons"), rather than articulate the behavior is important. Calling them "Covidiots" is an indulgent lack of emotional discipline/maturity.

It's difficult to solve the problem by engaging in the same problematic behavior. 1/ https://t.co/5FBK2jNI6f
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) September 4, 2021

Yet, just 12 seconds into the show, Rubin’s characterization of efforts to contain covid as attempts to “control”/tyrannize not only demonizes medical professionals (“elites”), but it’s also an implicit refusal to acknowledge ANY good faith motivation to protect public health: 4/

“[Covid is] going to be this constant cudgel that they can always use to control us and lock us down and put more rules on us, and all of the *stuff* that you all get since they’re always going to do that….. 5/

(Rubin continued)…..it’s not going to be a top-down thing where *they* say, ‘you can have your life back’…”

Well, for the most part……at the beginning of the summer, there was a “top-down thing” where people mostly had their life back. 6/

And then hospitals started filling up with unvaccinated covid infections…

And then thousands of unvaccinated people started dying from covid. 7/

https://t.co/ZZ588T6CFa

At the 3:40 mark, Rubin, who appears to be “immune” from "contracting" the self-awareness necessary to recognize his own hypocrisy, gushes:

“Gosh, isn’t that refreshing….the tenor and tone with which he speaks.”

8/

Later, Rubin, again completely oblivious to his own “tenor and tone” says:

“We’re being told that we can’t ask questions, we better just obey…..In American, for a limited time we’re still allowed to ask questions….
9/

(Rubin continued)…I wonder how much longer these two guys will be in the NBA b/c the NBA is not too kind to people who push back…the NBA has made it very clear they are political organization…..I wonder if it’s going to be a little harder for those guys to get contracts.” 10/

Let’s unpack.

First, let’s analyze Rubin’s insinuation that “the NBA is an extension of Left Wing authoritarianism”.

In the video, Isaac gave a very measured, very rational explanation for not being vaccinated. 11/

However, there’s a saying in sports:

“Your greatest ability, is your availability”.

Generally, it’s used in the context of durability"
Regardless of your talent, if you can’t stay healthy, and can’t stay on the field/court, then your athletic dominance becomes irrelevant. 12/

Well, for obvious reasons, every sport has a policy for covid-exposed and covid-positive players. In the NBA, there’s a 7 day quarantine for unvaccinated players who come in contact with someone who tests positive. Obviously, it can be much longer for infections. 13/

Jonathon Isaac makes $17.4 million per year, or about $212,000 per game. So, one close contact could easily result in missing three or four games, which deprives his team of $600-$800 of services. Theoretically,...14/

...missing a player for several games could be the difference in winning or losing those games, and between making or not making the playoffs.

In the case of Bradley Beal, the second player in the video, he makes over $34 million per year, so the above numbers double. 15/

Up until about 5 minutes ago, the Right actually supported private companies making decisions they deemed to be in the best interest of the company....
....regardless of whether those measures are taken to protect employees/customers…. 16/ https://t.co/pwGLP0lbiW

Thread: on the current state of the Republican party

"The Right...is anti-state (government), anti-free enterprise, anti-communism, anti-democrat(ic), anti-capitalism, anti-personal responsibility (public health), and, as a result, anti-conservative." 1/ https://t.co/28IMnMca1x
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) April 2, 2021

….or, in the case of the NBA to encouraging its players to take action to maximize their “availability”….

....and to use that potential "availability" to make free enterprise, profit-motivated personnel decisions to determine who they will sign to $34,000,000 contracts.

17/

Now let’s circle back to Isaac’s very thoughtful/rational explanation/comments.

A talking point circling around the Right Wing media echo chamber is that natural antibodies are 27 times more effective than vaccines. Let’s dig into that study: 18/
https://t.co/mrbKrzL0So

The Israeli study (32k people) found:
- Never-infected, vaccinated people were 6-13 times more likely to get infected than previously infected unvaccinated people
- Risk of developing COVID was 27 times higher among the vaccinated, & risk of hospitalization 8 times higher

19/

But what isn’t usually included the echo chamber’s reporting is that the higher hospitalization rate….was based on just eight hospitalizations in a vaccinated group and one hospitalization in a previously infected group. (very small numbers/sample)

20/
https://t.co/Uq1KEMyYcX

And the 13-fold increased risk of infection in the same analysis was based on just 238 infections in the vaccinated population, which is less than 1.5% of the more than 16,000 people, versus 19 reinfections among a similar number of people who once had covid.

21/

Most importantly, the researchers compared more than 14k people who had a confirmed covid infection & were still unvaccinated with 14k previously infected people who received one dose of vaccine...the unvaccinated group was twice as likely to be reinfected as the vaccinated. 22/

Read that again.

The previously infected but unvaccinated group was twice as likely to be reinfected as the previously infected AND vaccinated group. (one dose of Pfizer vaccine)

23/

This basically neuters any argument against vaccinations that is based on "effectiveness"...because, at least for people who have already been infected, the vaccine is twice as effective against reinfection. Basically, it neuters the "it doesn't stop infections", argument. 24/

In the case of NBA players, they're twice as likely to be “available” if they're vaccinated.

And any competitive/financial considerations taking that into account are actually “conservative” free market principles. 25/

And any fear mongering comments about the “control”, or “cudgels” by guys like Rubin expose the fraudulence of his celebration of “tenor and tone”. 26/

What this also shows is the danger that misunderstandings, conflicting information, misinformation, and, especially, disinformation can have on people’s reactions. 27/

An otherwise irrational behavior can actual appear rational when it occurs in response to a false, irrational reality. With covid, the Right wing media propagates politicized disinformation to create a false reality. 28/

This causes people to respond to the manufactured reality, rather actual reality…..and can result in the reaction actually being rational based on the information they have. 29/

In the case of the NBA players, their responses are a rational reaction to incomplete information/disinformation. The media (Rubin) then uses these “rational” reactions to the alternate reality as proof that actual reality, and those who live in it, are irrational. 30/

This is a go-to move by the Right: The January 6th insurrection was, to a large degree, a result of people “rationally” reacting to an alternate reality created by Trump because…. 31/
https://t.co/YtCsLihO21

That catalyst was the "Big Lie".

The lie was the incitement that caused the insurrection.

Every other comment made on January 6th by Trump, Rudy ("Trial by Combat"), etc., was made in support of the initial incitement:

Repeatedly lying about the 2020 election being stolen. 4/
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) July 5, 2021

When people legitimately believe an election was stolen, it becomes a rational response to “take it back” (January 6th), or “steal it back” in 2024.

32/
https://t.co/DOFKrDWA8I

When people legitimately believe the election was stolen, it becomes "patriotic" to take it back by force. This is why five years of Trump's pathological dishonesty was so corrosive and dangerous to the country: 2/https://t.co/7P4aVu9nzy
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) July 8, 2021

….33/…. https://t.co/db1SODG1Ry

If duty-bound, and duty-driven people (military/law enforcement) are told that the election was stolen enough times........eventually even rational/decent people will start to question reality.....with some eventually acting upon those lies. 5/
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) July 5, 2021

….34/…. https://t.co/xwiSRASIeo

If a superior officer lies to a good (wo)man enough times, it will eventually result in the misapplication of their values, and the mis-performance of their duties.

Basically, this can result in good people doing the wrong thing for what they believe are the "right" reasons. 6/
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) July 5, 2021

Another recent study published 9/17/2021 showing vaccine effectiveness: 35/

https://t.co/ovAoRTO5YL

A Right wing conspiracy theory claiming the vaccine is designed to depopulate the world:https://t.co/vFcVz0ayM6

An anti-vax (conspiracy) theory was on display at a recent school board meeting:

Covid vaccines are a \u201cconspiracy by the Deep State medical establishment to depopulate the world".

For the sake of argument, let\u2019s dissect this conspiracy...1/ https://t.co/GzrPfQEZkN
— Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych (@Nick_Carmody) September 7, 2021

One anti-vax talking point is that since "the vaccine does not stop the spread of the virus", anti-vaxers are not putting others at risk.

This story is an example of how unvaccinated people requiring hospitalizations are putting others at risk:

https://t.co/6AKorB2LYF

When I got Covid in 2020 and spent weeks in the hospital, it was harrowing. But it was nothing compared to what my family is dealing with now\u2014also as a result of Covid.

This is a Covid horror story in which no one actually gets Covid, and it could still happen to anyone \U0001f9f5
— Summer Brennan (@summerbrennan) September 28, 2021

Observations about Covid, vaccine effectiveness, media portrayals/hypocrisy, and even Jan 6th to show the dangerous effect “trickle down irrationality”:

When disinformation causes otherwise irrational behavior to appear rational.

Let's unpack.....1/

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Observations about Covid, vaccine effectiveness, media portrayals/hypocrisy, and even Jan 6th to show the dangerous effect “trickle down irrationality”:When disinformation causes otherwise irrational behavior to appear rational.Let's unpack.....1/

More from Nick Carmody JD, MS Psych

More from All

You May Also Like

Observations about Covid, vaccine effectiveness, media portrayals/hypocrisy, and even Jan 6th to show the dangerous effect “trickle down irrationality”:

When disinformation causes otherwise irrational behavior to appear rational.

Let's unpack.....1/