In the midst of an ineptly managed pandemic and ineptly managed civil unrest and economic fiasco people try to make sense of it by reading everything they can. Scrolling through post and news story after news story is called “doomscrolling” and it destroys your mental health:

Checking your phone for an extra two hours every night won’t stop the apocalypse—but it could stop you from being psychologically prepared for it.

Source: Doomscrolling Is Slowly Eroding Your Mental Health | WIRED

In March I began following numerous public health “experts”, epidemiologists, infectious disease “experts”, virologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, doctors and more – thinking this would help me make sense of everything.

To the contrary, I found the experts’ posts inconsistent from day to day, inconsistent between each other, often contradictory, and generally incoherent. This did not lead to improved understanding – but to incredible levels of stress and anxiety.

The first week of June – something happened that caused me to stop following all public health experts and to abandon most of the “news” about Covid-19, protests and everything else.

The tweet, below, was shared into my Twitter feed (which I have since stopped using) and caused me to lose it. Let me paraphrase the tweet before you read it:

• Last week: Stay Home. Save Lives. Don’t Kill Grandma. This virus is so dangerous we must close schools and put 40 million out of work:
• Now: Join mass super spreader events! Kill Grandma. Virus no longer important.

And this is from an actual “public health doctor”:

It was not just her – other’s joined in – in large numbers:

The petition reach 1,300 signatures before being closed, perhaps due to negative feedback.

In Contra Costa County, California, “public health officials” updated their stay at home order to read as follows:

Because if you carry a protest sign at a social gathering, you can now have up to 100 people present. This also applies to weddings and parties – just make sure you have a protest sign because the virus can distinguish between those with and without protest signs!

These are the same “experts” who condemned people on Florida beaches (outdoor events), condemned Georgia’s re-opening as an “Experiment in human sacrifice” (deaths actually fell dramatically after they re-opened), enforced rules leading to the arrest of solitary surfers in Los Angeles, and blasted people protesting against loss of jobs, or lock downs.

Now they flip flopped and encouraged participation in crowded mass events, often with thousands of people. Some of these experts claimed that at protest events, people were responsibly wearing face masks and this would prevent the spread of disease. A review of photos posted online showed this claim was false in numerous instances. Photos also showed people wearing face masks but physically touching each other (no more social distancing?)[1].

Earlier, we had this dose of brilliance from the Multnomah County Health Department:

At this point, I concluded public health is a field full of shit and I stopped following everyone in the field – on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. I discontinued following the Coronavirus forum on Reddit. The field has no credibility.

You’ll note that I was not dealing with random social media posts from the usual noise generators and “friends” sharing stuff on social media. The above came from “experts”.

The sole purpose of social media is as a friction-less platform for the distribution of propaganda. Side effects created by social media include anxiety, depression and a host of behavioral health problems. Our best bet is to turn off the spigot of social media.

(I have saved a lot more social media posts than just those shown above. I found that reading such garbage from experts was very damaging to my health and have cut all of it out. I no longer engage in doom scrolling, no longer seek information about corona virus and the latest pronouncements as I learned that public health statements have no credibility and provide no value to me.)

Footnote

[1] There is as of today, no scientific, controlled trial proof that use of home made or improvised face masks by the general public have any significant impact on reducing the spread of Covid-19. There are studies based on assumptions and models. But there is no real world data, even the CDC has said that. In my area, probably fewer than half of those wearing a face mask are doing so properly. Many are using N95 masks with unfiltered outlet valves (essentially so useless they are prohibited by many jurisdictions), have their mask covering only their mouth and not their nose, have their mask pulled down over their neck or remove their mask when talking to others.

Second, if these large outdoor events do not lead to more cases of Covid-19, then this strongly suggests the mandated closure of parks, trails and state and national forest lands was unnecessary and unsupportable by data. In other words, more bull shit from public health enthusiasts.

Because of this, I no longer follow every word from the public health enthusiast community. They shot their own field in the head.