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Thursday, February 27, 2020

CORONA VIRUS BLOG POSTS

Trump’s coronavirus response includes many things he criticized President Obama for response:
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trumps-coronavirus-response-includes.html

Infectious Disease Director at University of Nebraska contradicts Trump:
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/infectious-disease-director-at.html

Sanders blasts Trump’s coronavirus
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/sanders-blasts-trumps-coronavirus.html

Trump Ripped For Putting 'Science-Denier' Mike Pence In Charge Of Coronavirus
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trump-ripped-for-putting-science-denier.html

Trump said coronavirus won’t spread — his scientists said the opposite right in front of him
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trump-said-coronavirus-wont-spread-his.html

Trump's acting Homeland Security chief was excoriated by a GOP senator
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trumps-acting-homeland-security-chief.html

CDC issues beard and mustache guide for coronavirus pandemic
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/beards-mustaches-and-respirators-oh-my.html

Coronavirus latest: Stark CDC, WHO warnings add to global gloom: 'This could be bad'
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/coronavirus-latest-stark-cdc-who.html

Kudlow: Coronavirus will not be economic tragedy
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/kudlow-coronavirus-will-not-be-economic.html

CORONA VIRUS MEME
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-corona-virus-satire-meme.html

A faulty CDC coronavirus test delays monitoring of disease’s spread
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/a-faulty-cdc-coronavirus-test-delays.html

The coronavirus cruise ship outbreak confirms cruises are bad
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-coronavirus-cruise-ship-outbreak.html

The coronavirus recession?
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-coronavirus-recession-jeff-spross.html

Coronavirus fatality rates vary wildly depending on age, gender and medical history
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/home-personal-finance-coronavirus.html

As coronavirus cases surge, the U.S. military prepares for possible pandemic
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/as-coronavirus-cases-surge-u.html

Trump's coronavirus response is worse than incompetent
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trumps-coronavirus-response-is-worse.html

HHS Secretary Alex Azar reportedly blindsided by Trump putting Pence in charge of coronavirus response
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/hhs-secretary-alex-azar-reportedly.html

Effectiveness of travel bans—readily used during infectious disease outbreaks—mostly unknown, study finds
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/effectiveness-of-travel-bansreadily.html

Virus could mean $5 bn in airline losses: UN agency
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/virus-could-mean-5-bn-in-airline-losses.html

Q&A: Coronavirus likely to infect the global economy
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/fake-news-makes-disease-outbreaks-worse.html

Hundreds march in Hong Kong against potential coronavirus quarantine clinics
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/hundreds-march-in-hong-kong-against.html

I Am Watching China Wage Peoples War on Coronavirus
(65,000 Cases and Growing)
https://plawiuknd.blogspot.com/2020/02/i-am-watching-china-wage-peoples-war.html

China’s Leader, Uer Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early On
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/chinas-leader-under-fire-says-he-led.html

Here’s How Scientists Think Coronavirus Spreads From Bats to Humans
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/heres-how-scientists-think-coronavirus.html

PANGOLIN
How love for an endangered animal inspired a new wave of coronavirus racism
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/how-love-for-endangered-animal-inspired.html

Fake news makes disease outbreaks worse, research shows
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/fake-news-makes-disease-outbreaks-worse.html

AFP Fact Check Busting coronavirus myth
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/afp-fact-check-busting-coronavirus-myths.html

Vancouver’s Chinese restaurants are empty amid coronavirus fears. If misinformation is to blame, so is China’s embassy
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/vancouvers-chinese-restaurants-are.html

THE ORIGIN OF THE CHINESE BIO WEAPON VIRUS CONSPIRACY THEORY
IS A NOVEL OF COURSE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-origin-of-chinese-bio-weapon-virus.html

Coronavirus: From bats to pangolins, how do viruses reach us?
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/coronavirus-from-bats-to-pangolins-how.html

DOCTOR TRUMP & DR XI SAY; GLOBAL WARMING KILLS CORONOAVIRUS
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/doctor-trump-dr-xi-i-presume-drew.html

Coronavirus email hoax led to violent protests in Ukraine
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/coronavirus-email-hoax-led-to-violent.html

An official leading South Korea's battle against COVID-19 says he's a member of a doomsday cult
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/an-official-leading-south-koreas-battle.html

Trump’s flailing incompetence makes coronavirus even scarier
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trumps-flailing-incompetence-makes.html

Will China's coronavirus outbreak send the world economy into recession?
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/will-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-send.html

China’s Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early On
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/chinas-leader-under-fire-says-he-led.html

Trump Bans Corona Beer To Stop Spread Of The Super Virus
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/02/trump-bans-corona-beer-to-stop-spread.html

Saturday, September 01, 2007

He's Off His Meds, Again

Werner Patels that is.

It appears he has gone off on one of his multiple-blog-personality psychotic tirades again attacking various bloggers including some of those whom he had praised only months ago.

Just scroll down this aggregate of his posts here.

Here are response from those he attacked or have commented on his attacks.

The Prattler: Look What I Can Do!

Werner Patels is Banned from the Internet

Werner Patels Could Replace Barbara Amiel

Quick One (Before I Go Away For The Week-End)
Werner Patels and the Dummest Blogger in Canada
The Red Tory
The civility of "outing" bloggers

Herr Patels has gone from being a blogging pundit claiming to be a Conservative, then a Liberal (provincial and federal ,he supported Kennedy for Leader, though not at the same time), a Green, a Dipper and back to a Conservative.

Werner Patels Says:
May 16th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
I have been saying it now for months on end: of all the leaders in Ottawa, Layton is the most reasonable, most common-sensical and most honorable leader out there, which is why he and the NDP deserve my vote next time — I won’t kid myself and predict an NDP government, but it would be nice if the NDP could become the official opposition and move up to second place in the HoC.

Friday, March 20, 2020

MY CORONAVIRUS SURFACE CLEANING BLOG LINKS

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-coronavirus-can-survive-on-some.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/new-coronavirus-stable-for-hours-on.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-can-live-in-air-for-3-hours.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-long-do-viruses-live-on-surfaces.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/can-coronavirus-live-on-your-clothes.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/more-germs-than-public-bathroom-how-to.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-can-live-on-surfaces-for-3.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/outside-box-deadly-viruses-are-no-match.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-crazy-story-of-purell-and.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/these-cleaners-kill-coronavirus-lysol.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/cant-find-purell-or-other-hand.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/how-to-wash-your-hands.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-lingers-in-rooms-and.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/filthy-lucre-cash-could-be-spreading.html

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Coronavirus: Malaria drug has no impact on treating Covid-19 patients, Chinese study finds

Danielle Zoellner, The Independent•March 25, 2020

AFP via Getty Images

The malaria drug hydroxychloroquine might not be effective in treating patients with Covid-19, a new study finds.

The report published by the Journal of Zhejiang University in China tested if coronavirus patients who received the medication were more likely to recover than those who didn’t, and it found that was not the case.

This limited study only looked at 30 patients and contrasted the study from France, which looked at 40 patients. In France, its study found the virus decreased in patients when used with the combination of an antibiotic.

France’s study encouraged President Donald Trump to advertise the potential benefits with the US to help treat the novel virus. Last week, he called the drug combination a “game-changer” even though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned it might not work and has yet to approve it for Covid-19.

But the FDA approved drug trials in New York state with more severe Covid-19 patients to see if the combination of hydroxychloroquine and an antibiotic would help. These trials started on Tuesday, and Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was “optimistic” about the results.

Nevada‘s governor, Steve Sisolak, banned the use of hydroxchloroquine and chloroquine to treat coronavirus patients after the contradictory reports on if the drugs actually worked against the virus.

Mr Sisolak said there was no consensus among experts or Nevada doctors that the drug combination would be beneficial to patients.

His executive order also limited prescription orders to only allow a 30-day supply. This limitation was to ensure the drug was used for “legitimate medical purposes”, such as lupus patients or people with malaria.

An interest in the drug has caused problems across the US, including people wrongly using the medication to treat Covid-19 symptoms.

An Arizona man died after he self-medicated with an additive used to clean fish tanks, which included chloroquine phosphate. His wife also took the mixture and is now in the ICU battling the drug effects of the solution.

When speaking to NBC News, the woman said the couple decided to try to mixture after hearing about the drug’s potential benefits during the president’s press conferences. They were “afraid of getting sick” from the virus.

Drug shortages for chloroquine and hydroxchloroquine have also escalated across the country, with pharmacists reporting that doctors are misusing their positions by prescribing the drugs for themselves and family members.

States including Nevada, Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, and Texas have noticed doctors hoarding the prescriptions and released recommendations to deter any abuse by prescribers.

Pharmacists are now encouraged to report any misbehaviour if they believe a prescriber is prescribing hydroxchloroquine or chloroquine to patients who do not need them.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/true-believer-is-quack-florida-man.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/updated-arizona-man-dies-after.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/pence-again-touts-chloroquine-as.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/snakeoil-on-fox-surgeon-general-shuts.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/dr-trump-quack-trump-kept-saying-it-was.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/covid-report-trump-touted-malaria-drug.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/scientists-chase-two-fronts-in-how-to.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/snake-oil-salesman-heres-truth-about.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/man-dies-and-his-wife-is-under-critical.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/trumps-hyping-of-malaria-drug-to-treat.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/trump-is-idiot-virus-drug-touted-by.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/trump-is-idiot-trump-lashes-out-at.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/south-korea-experts-recommend-anti-hiv.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/03/clinical-trial-shows-hiv-drugs.html

Thursday, April 23, 2020

OPINION
Who’s Behind the ‘Reopen’ Protests?
They are anything but spontaneous.

By Lisa Graves
Ms. Graves is the executive director of True North Research and curator of KochDocs.
April 22, 2020

A protest against Michigan’s stay-at-home order outside the State Capitol last week.Credit...Seth Herald/Reuters

I first became aware of the political influence of Charles and David Koch in 2009 when I started looking into who was behind the protests at health care town halls.

The Tea Party, formed after America elected its first black president, used a series of health care town halls to spur angry Republicans to oppose the Affordable Care Act as a socialist takeover of American medicine. Little matter that it was modeled on a plan devised by Mitt Romney, a Republican, when he was the governor of Massachusetts.

Such false claims about the act have not aged well, as millions of Americans now depend on the law for health care coverage as the coronavirus contagion sweeps across the nation. And yet a Tea Party co-founder, Mark Meckler, is using the same tactics and same phony claims to stir his followers to protest against governors seeking to mitigate the Covid-19 death toll by closing businesses and banning public gatherings.

That public anger is both real and manufactured. The same was true in 2009, when the Koch fortune fueled the Tea Party’s attacks on the Obama administration’s health care law.

Still, the legend that the Tea Party was a spontaneous uprising took hold and continues to be peddled. As we face Tea Party 2.0, let’s not be fooled again.

The protests playing out now have the same feel as the Tea Party protests aided by Koch-financed Americans for Prosperity and others a decade ago — and with good reason: Early evidence suggests they are not organic but a brush fire being stoked by some of the same people and money that built the Tea Party.

Look no further than the first protest organized by the Michigan Conservative Coalition and the Michigan Freedom Fund — whose chairman manages the vast financial investments of Dick and Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary — to see that the campaign to “open” America flows from the superrich and their front groups.

Stephen Moore — a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a Koch ally and a Trump adviser — admitted as much in a video I obtained comparing these new protesters to Rosa Parks, as first reported in The Times.

Mr. Moore, who is now leading an enterprise to end the virus precautions called Save Our Country, which includes the Koch-backed American Legislative Exchange Council, boasted that he has been working behind the scenes with a conservative donor who agreed to cover bail and legal fees for demonstrators who get arrested for defying Wisconsin’s virus protective measures.

More on the coronavirus demonstrations.
Protesters Pushing to Reopen Economy Are ‘Idiots,’ Says Top Manufacturing LobbyistApril 21, 2020

Opinion | Paul Krugman
The Right Sends In the QuacksApril 20, 2020

Opinion | Charlie Warzel
Protesting for the Freedom to Catch the CoronavirusApril 19, 2020

Others are providing legal assistance as well. The Times reports that a private Facebook group called Reopen NC has retained the legal services of Michael Best & Friedrich, a Wisconsin law firm whose clients include President Trump. The firm is well known for its work with dark-money groups that fought the recall of the Koch ally Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and waged war on unions.

Then there’s the Convention of States, established in 2015 with a big contribution from the conservative hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer. The group recruits activists at gun shows to support a balanced-budget amendment and is promoting the protests online via “Open the States.” COS is an offshoot of Citizens for Self-Governance, which Mr. Meckler co-founded with a longtime Koch operative, Eric O’Keefe.

To give you a flavor of what’s unfolding to help orchestrate these events, this week one of Mr. Meckler’s organizers told supporters via Facebook that “optics are everything” and that they should be sure to wear a mask to the protests and stand six feet apart — because it will make the crowds look bigger.

COS and a Koch-financed public relations firm, In Pursuit Of, are also purchasing domain names tied to protests to open the states, suggesting they are investing for a long battle — even as the death toll rises.

The consequences are already starting. One week after a Kentucky protest, the state experienced its largest spike in coronavirus cases. Other states may soon see similar spikes.

Those fanning these flames, including President Trump and Fox News hosts, are unlikely to get burned by infection themselves, though they may be goading their followers to risk their health by attending mass demonstrations.

America is now facing three calamities: a deadly contagion, a capricious president and a well-funded right-wing infrastructure willing to devalue human life in pursuit of its political agenda. Some very rich men and women are making this medical disaster worse through their reckless bellows, inflaming people to demand that states open now no matter how many lives that costs.

Lisa Graves is the executive director of True North Research and curator of KochDocs, and a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice.

RIGHT WING NUTS ANTI COVID-19 PROTESTS

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/4/who-is-behind-coronavirus-social.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-tea-party-linked-group-plans-to.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/conservative-group-linked-to-devos.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/opinion-whos-behind-reopen-protests.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/america-has-descended-into-coronavirus.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-trump-protesters-push-back-on-stay.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/fringe-right-closes-down-michigan.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/these-people-arent-freedom.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-quiet-hand-of-conservative-groups.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-trump-protesters-push-back-on-stay.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/protesters-decry-stay-at-home-orders-in.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/trump-ally-lickspittle-bootlicker.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-rightwing-groups-behind-wave-of.html

IT SPREAD TO CANADA
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/reckless-yahoos-protest-at-queens-park.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/canada-eh-great-anti-vaxxer-coronavirus.html

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Blogger Buzz MIA

"Blogspot is again experiencing problems - we are investigating."

Yeah so are we. The users who have been subjected to the arbitrary deletions of our posts. As I posted here yesterday tongue in cheek;Google Censoring Blogspot there still appears to be problems, hopefully I will be able to save this before it disappears into the Blogspot abyss.

So is blogger / blogspot.com fixed or not. We would all like to know.

Well if you check out Blogger Buzz the official blogger info spot that Blogspot links you to well you wouldn't know. The last posting was a week ago on January 26. When you open your Blogger dashboard the last reported maintenance report is for November 2005!

Meanwhile if you want to know about the crisis facing our free blog service here is what Bloggers Blog, not related to Blogspot says;

BlogSpot and Blogger.com Problems

BlogSpot.com blogs run by the Blogger.com service from Google are having problems today. The problems apparently began earlier this week. There are posts here and here about earlier outages. However, these posts cannot currently be read because of the outage. Bloggers are discussing the outages here at BloggerForum.com. Some bloggers posting say that Blogger.com has been down for several hours and they are anxious for an explanation from Blogger.com.

Update: The Blogger.com status page includes a recent post (Posted by Eric at 16:04 PST) that says "Blogspot is again experiencing problems - we are investigating." The status page also includes information about outages that have occured over the last few days.

Posted on February 4, 2006
Permalink | Blogs linking to this post: Bloglines | BlogPulse | IceRocket | Technorati

Meanwhile lots of us in Canada using blogspot have reported on our problems.

Blogger problems

Well, wasn't that annoying!

My posts today on verbena-19

Blogger Malfunction

Comment Malfunction
I have no idea what?s going on with Blogger. It?s deleting posts and comments. At the same it?s sending me multiple copies via e-mail of comments that it stubbornly won?t post. Wonky.

Comment Malfunction
Not sure what happened yesterday, but a whole bunch of comments disappeared into the ether. I got them in my e-mail, but for some reason they weren?t posted. Blogger was pretty flaky all day on Friday.

It seems that Blogger is back up!

test

test

google.com vs. google.cn

Wierd World of Blogspot

On impending failure Opps sorry this is an article about the Harper government.

Most Of Blogger Is Back Online Now Sure and I will believe it when this little flashing at the bottom of the page quits saying "check connection." And remember most does not mean ALL.

The question here is why hasn't Google/Blooger/Blog spot had the courtesy of telling us what the hell is going on. Is this anyway to run a business?! I guess the customer has the right to be informed has given way once again to Cavet Emptor.
Or TANSTAAFL

Tags
Google
blogs
blogspot
blogger

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Use of conservative and social media linked with COVID-19 misinformation

by University of Pennsylvania

People who relied on conservative media or social media in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak were more likely to be misinformed about how to prevent the virus and believe conspiracy theories about it, a study of media use and public knowledge has found.

Based on an Annenberg Science Knowledge survey fielded in early March with over a thousand adults, the study was conducted by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The study, published this week in the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review, found that there were notable differences in views about the coronavirus that correlated with people's media consumption.

Media usage and COVID-19 misinformation

Conservative media usage (such as Fox News and Rush Limbaugh) correlated with higher levels of misinformation and belief in conspiracies about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, including:

The belief that the Chinese government created the virus as a bioweapon (scientists say the virus likely originated with animals and there is "strong evidence" it is "not the product of purposeful manipulation");
The belief that some in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were exaggerating the danger posed by the coronavirus in order to damage Donald Trump's presidency;
The belief that taking vitamin C can prevent a person from being infected with the coronavirus (which is unsupported by evidence).

Social media and web aggregator usage was associated with lower levels of information and higher levels of misinformation:

People who used social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) were more likely to believe that taking vitamin C can prevent infection with the coronavirus; that some in the CDC were exaggerating the threat to harm the president; and that the virus was created by the U.S. government;
People who used web aggregators (such as Google News, Yahoo News) were less likely to believe in the effectiveness of hand washing and avoidance of symptomatic individuals as ways to prevent transmission of the virus (in early March, asymptomatic transmission was less clear).

Mainstream broadcast and print media usage correlated with higher levels of correct information and lower levels of misinformation:

People who reported using broadcast news (such as ABC News, CBS News, NBC News) were more likely to say, correctly, that the novel coronavirus is more lethal than the seasonal flu.
People who consume mainstream print news (such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal) were more likely to hold accurate beliefs about the virus. They were more likely to report that they believe that regular hand washing and avoiding contact with symptomatic people are ways to prevent infection with the coronavirus; and less likely to believe that vitamin C can prevent infection, that some in the CDC were exaggerating the threat in order to undermine the president, and that the Chinese government created the virus as a bioweapon.

"Because both information and misinformation can affect behavior, we all ought be doing our part not only to increase essential knowledge about SARS-CoV-2, but also to interdict the spread of deceptions about its origins, prevention, and effects," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), who co-authored the paper with Dolores Albarracín of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an APPC distinguished research fellow. "Additionally, all forms of media should ask, Are our audiences better prepared to deal with this coronavirus as a result of our work or is their trust in us endangering them and their communities?"

Jamieson said that people seeking to verify information can go to government health sites such as the CDC website or to APPC's fact-checking project, FactCheck.org.

Annenberg Science Knowledge survey findings

The study is the first in a series on COVID-19 by APPC, which conducted similar research in 2016 on the Zika virus and in 2019 on vaccination during the measles outbreak. "Like the earlier studies, the current effort will track the success of the media in presenting accurate information and of health communicators in getting the message out," Jamieson said.

The Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey on COVID-19 was conducted March 3-8, 2020, among a nationally representative sample of 1,008 U.S. adults. The survey, conducted for APPC by SSRS, an independent research company, has a margin of error of ±3.57%.

The survey found that 87% correctly said regular hand washing and avoiding people with virus symptoms were preventative measures against COVID-19, a success in public health messaging. But it also found troubling gaps in public knowledge and worrisome belief in conspiracy theories:

More than 1 in 5 respondents (23%) thought it was probably or definitely true that the Chinese had created the virus as a bioweapon (there is no evidence of this);
More than 1 in 5 (21%) thought taking vitamin C can probably or definitely prevent infection by the coronavirus (it does not);
Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) said it was probably or definitely true that some in the CDC were exaggerating the danger posed by the virus in order to damage the Trump presidency;
And 1 in 10 (10%) said it was probably or definitely true that the U.S. government had created the virus (there is no evidence of this).

"The findings from this ASK survey contribute to the scholarship on health and science communication while also providing insights on what to do as the U.S. resolves this pandemic," Albarracín said. "The next step will be to test the efficacy of the recommendations suggested by this research."

Five recommendations

The researchers offered five recommendations to improve public understanding of the virus:

1) The need for proactive communication about prevention: While a high portion of the public (87%) knew that hand washing and avoiding symptomatic people were preventative measures, gaps in public knowledge "should alert public health officials to the ongoing need for effective communication of needed information long before a crisis."

2) Find out what information to debunk: In order to focus fact-checkers most effectively, the researchers proposed prioritizing corrections for misinformation held by at least 10% of the population. Here, for instance, the conspiracy theory that the virus was developed by the Chinese as a bioweapon (held by 23%) and that some in the CDC exaggerated the threat to harm the president (19%) should be prioritized by fact-checkers.

3) A baseline for monitoring social media interventions: By offering an early window on misinformation in the pandemic, the study provides a way to assess the social media platforms' efforts to blunt the effects of misinformation.

4) Proposed interventions in conservative media: The study should motivate public health officials to place public service announcements, encourage hyperlinks to CDC web pages, and seek interviews on news outlets whose audiences are less knowledgeable, more misinformed, or more accepting of conspiracy theories. The researchers noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did that on March 11 by going on Sean Hannity's Fox News show, where Fauci explained that coronavirus is much more lethal than the seasonal flu.

5) Newspapers should take down paywalls on coronavirus coverage: The finding that reading mainstream print publications is associated with greater knowledge of the virus should encourage print media to follow the lead of publications such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and others to make their virus coverage free to all readers. Readers who appreciate the public health coverage may respond by subscribing—or with donations.

Researcher launches effort to combat coronavirus conspiracies

More information: Kathleen Hall Jamieson et al, The Relation between Media Consumption and Misinformation at the Outset of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the US, Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review (2020). DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-012

RIGHT WING NUTS ANTI COVID-19 PROTESTS
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/reopen-protest-movement-created-boosted.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/hi-my-uterus-and-i-find-these-shutdown.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/4/who-is-behind-coronavirus-social.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-tea-party-linked-group-plans-to.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/conservative-group-linked-to-devos.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/opinion-whos-behind-reopen-protests.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/america-has-descended-into-coronavirus.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/pro-trump-protesters-push-back-on-stay.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/04/fringe-right-closes-down-michigan.html
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‘Reopen’ Protest Movement Created, Boosted by Fake Grassroots Tactics

New research and journalistic investigation is revealing powerful forces who want their influence to remain secret are behind the lockdown protests.THE CONVERSATION PUBLISHED 24 APRIL 2020

Image via AP Photo / Jeff Roberson

Many Americans have been under strict stay-at-home orders, or at least advisories, for more than a month. People are frustrated and depressed, but have complied with what they’ve been asked to endure because they trust that state and local public health officials are telling the truth about the coronavirus pandemic.

There has been passionate – and honest – argument about how many people are likely to get sick and die under different circumstances and sets of official rules. It’s not clear how uncertain and evolving scientific findings should affect extraordinary government measures that restrict citizens’ basic freedoms.

In recent days, there have there been public protests against continuing the lockdown. The people who are doing the demonstrating may really be frustrated and upset, but new research, and journalistic investigation, is revealing that there are powerful forces behind them, egging them on, who want their influence to remain secret.CNBC’s Rick Santelli questions a part of the 2009 federal bailout plan.
Seeking authentic feelings

Dissent – and the freedom to do it – is a crucial element of democracy. Political leaders are rightly influenced by public opinion. But it’s important to know when protests are sparked by special-interest groups seeking to manipulate officials’ perception of public sentiment.

As a journalist who has covered politics for 20 years and now studies how people process uncertainty, I note that the questions about the current protests raise echoes of the Tea Party movement a decade ago.

In February 2009, the Obama administration was grappling with a severe economic crisis caused by a collapse in the mortgage market. A reporter on CNBC, Rick Santelli, began to complain that one part of the federal bailout plan, the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, might let people out of their mortgage obligations even if they should have anticipated they wouldn’t be able to afford them and would face foreclosure.

Santelli made this point on TV while standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, surrounded by very wealthy traders who egged him on. It was compelling entertainment, and the speech spread rapidly through conservative media. Radio host Rush Limbaugh replayed it on his show; conservative strategists admired it, and millions of conservatives heard it.

Santelli called for a modern-day “tea party” to object to unfair government rules.

Within months, a coalition of anti-immigration reform activists, fiscal hawks, regulation opponents and social conservatives pulled together behind a common set of grievances: Barack Obama’s alleged profligate spending, his willingness to let certain groups get ahead in the economy over other groups – policies that many of them viewed as putting racial minorities at a perceived advantage to white people.

Calling themselves the Tea Party movement, most members were Republicans – but the Republican Party wasn’t speaking for them, so the nation’s two-party structure itself became a common enemy, too. When the Tea Party held its first protests, thousands of people showed up. As the protests spread, motivated partisans who look for opportunities to change attitudes and behaviors, backed by a conservative political funding machine, developed a way to capture the protest energy and channel it effectively.

Authentic protest – like how the Tea Party movement began – is a longstanding American tradition. AP Photo/Matt Rourke THE TEA PARTY WAS NOT AUTHENTIC IT TOO WAS THE CREATION OF EX REPUBLICAN SENATORS, LIKE DICK ARMY - THESE ARE STANDARD REPUBLICAN DIRTY TRICKS AS USED BY ROGER STONE

Enduring sentiments, new moments

Social scientists who study new movements in politics find that the underlying sentiments are as old as civilization itself: Who gets the stuff that the government gives out? What’s fair? Who’s jumped the line?

What, then, makes a movement into something real?

It starts with a galvanizing event, like the Tea Party’s public protest gatherings, when hundreds of thousands of people saw that other people were willing to work together for a cause.

The movement needs a common enemy – in that case, Obama, his policies and a political structure that permitted them – and the potential for real change, not just politically but socially as well. For those joining the Tea Party, the goal became clear: They could take over the Republican Party.

Fairly quickly, the Tea Party was co-opted by wealthier interests hoping to channel its energy toward slightly different ends – although much of the movement resisted the corporate takeover of its message. Public opinion surveys backed up the intuition that the movement had force

A North Carolina protest was ostensibly coordinated by ReopenNC, whose website was registered by a Florida resident and focuses on selling T-shirts and stickers.
AP Photo/Gerry Broome

A viral ideology

In mid-April 2020, it appeared, a new movement was rising to express frustration with the restrictions and uncertain endpoint to the pandemic, and the economic toll the lockdown has caused.

In the space of several days, there were protests in a dozen states, ranging from a crowd of more than 2,000 who gathered in Olympia, Washington, to several dozen in Annapolis, Maryland.

The available evidence suggests that the demonstrations were organized by paid political operatives using Facebook and new websites to encourage conservatives to protest in specific places against specific governors who had imposed strong public health restrictions on economic activity. This context indicates that one real intention of the protests was to create the illusion of an organic movement that had arisen to object to the restrictions. Evidence is to the contrary: Polling shows that just 12% of Americans think their local restrictions have gone too far – and 26% think they don’t go far enough.

Sparked by citizen inquiries first posted on Reddit, independent investigative reporter Brian Krebs has confirmed that most of the web domains that had been registered around the idea of “reopening” the economy belonged to a very small number of people. He used a cybersecurity search tool to search for “any and all domains registered in the past month that begin with “reopen” and end in “.com.” He found that many of them were created on the same day.

He found that many of these websites, whose registration records you can see yourself at Whois.com, were owned by anti-gun-control groups that are run by the same family of brothers that organized the demonstrations through Facebook groups they run.

Several others of the “reopen” websites were registered with addresses or phone numbers used by longstanding conservative enterprises like Freedom Works. A surprising number belonged to an activist who told Mother Jones that he registered the domains to keep conservatives from using them to counter the recommendation of public health officials.

The ‘Reopen North Carolina’ website focuses on selling merchandise.
Screenshot of ReopenNC.com by The Conversation, CC BY-ND

The threat of fake grassroots

For the people who took part, the protests were no doubt real.

But media coverage can inflate or distort their size and meaning. On its main protest story, ABC News put a headline suggesting protests had “spread” to new places.

But that creates a sense that these protests grew quickly, spontaneously, and organically. The fact that protests happened in different places at different times doesn’t actually mean they’re spreading. When organized by the same small group of political operatives, sequential protests reflect the creators’ skill at mobilizing people – not a naturally rising level of frustration that ultimately pushes people to act.

Many political movements use these tactics. The problem comes from how the media presents the resulting events. On April 21, a labor union organized a protest by nurses at the White House – and media reports noted the event was created by a particular group with a specific purpose. That’s different from how the media treated the “reopen” gatherings.

By covering a contrived protest as though it is an organic movement, the media could, even unintentionally, create the illusion of a popular force that doesn’t really exist.

That could result in politicians feeling nonexistent or exaggerated pressure to make decisions that threaten Americans’ public health.

Marc Ambinder, Executive Fellow in Digital Security, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

WHAT WE NOTICE IS THAT THESE PROTESTS ARE WHITE PEOPLE, PROUDLY MEMBERS OF THE TRUMP DEPLORABLES

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment