In the past, that 60 minutes tv show brought us John Stossel, Lara Logan, and poor shaming the disabled as all moochers. They also delegitimized the show by using it to legitimize fringe figures. So I don’t have any hopes pinned on that outlet. And for this clean air episode, they had JG Allen on the show. He’s a minimizer who apparently said kids should be back to fully in-person school way back when, even without any of his recommendations for ventilation upgrades or safety measures. One wonders why even bother making the recommendations? Also, nobody was actually using any respiratory hygiene like n95 masks in any of the promos I saw for that show. Curious.
Though it’s an interesting topic that I think should be widely understood, I don’t think the problem of infectious disease spread will be solved by teaching people or businesses how air purifiers work. We need regulations to make them standard in risky settings. Nearly everyone now knows covid spreads from people’s mouths and noses into the air. My coworkers discussed this in early March 2020. Some people are not fully cognizant about how far virus can travel in the air, but they’re not ignorant of how it works. Yes, some people in the government and business try to deny it spreads easily through aerosols, mostly probably for legal reasons. But it’s like when former President Donald Trump lies – almost nobody is really fooled! Sure, some people pretend to believe what he says — if it suits them. The CDC has tried to pretend like they don’t know how aerosol transmission works, but they knew back in 2020, and there’s proof they knew.
The problem isn’t a lack of understanding about how to stop the spread. People just don’t think it’s necessary because they have learned to ignore or downplay the risks and normalize the harms as part of the Manufacturing Mild process, just as Big Tobacco and Fossil Fuel has done, so too commercial real estate, restaurant businesses, and the travel industry additionally push against any recognition that certain activities are risky, because people might pull back even further on those things.
Awareness only gets you so far. The idea that if only enough people know, something will magically happen without me doing anything beyond clicking on social media is sure a really enticing fantasy to justify doom scrolling and doing nothing else. This is apocalyptic hopium or accelerationist fantasy. We need a new PR scheme, but all the most lucrative mechanisms in the media landscape are being flooded with money to normalize negative outcomes. People are incentivized in the wrong direction, to promote those accelerationist ideas in some cases because it keeps concerned people inactive, placated, waiting for the miracle, instead of pushing for common sense regulations to clean indoor air and have respirator masks be standard (and free to the public) in risky settings like healthcare facilities, elderly care, and public transportation.
