by: blake murdoch
it’s summer 2020. my friend is arguing with me about covid deaths, saying how they are similar to the flu. i point out that even if this were true (it wasn’t and isn’t), it would only be because we have implemented widespread shutdowns, social distancing and other public health measures that have dramatically altered society and drastically limited viral spread. he doesn’t seem to register this, despite my repeated appeals. fast forward to march 2021, and our provincial government here in alberta announces that it did not record a single confirmed case of influenza during the flu season, from over one and a half million swabs.
for some reason, many of us are susceptible to irrational thinking about public health, and are easily misled. people seem to better understand what does and doesn’t make sense in a personal context. for example, if you wore a helmet while biking, then fell and hit your head but were uninjured, you would say the helmet did its job. you wouldn’t say that helmets are unnecessary because you didn’t get hurt. yet, the latter statement encapsulates many common misunderstandings of recent public health measures.
when these measures work, they immediately become both widely misunderstood and also weaponized by purveyors of misinformation. others have already pointed this out, of course. i’m bringing it up because it is about to happen again, in an entirely foreseeable way, with mandatory proof of vaccination and domestic vaccine passports.