04-10-2020, 02:46 PM
deckeda wrote:
Common to all victims is the misunderstanding and miscalculation of the risk.
Here's one tragic reason why...
Extremist sites pushed a disinformation campaign promoting COVID-19 as a "white people" disease, apparently as a joke, but people took it seriously. Websites and small town newspapers republished it with headlines "announcing that Chinese scientists discovered that melanin blocked the virus and celebrities retweeted it.
Minority communities bought it and in combination with the late start for social distancing/isolation orders from governors throughout the South, this was responsible for a drastic elevation in deaths from the virus in the United States.
Worse: The story has spread throughout the world.
Newspapers are now publishing stories with headlines "Black people are NOT immune to coronavirus..." The Miami Herald just published an editorial, "Don’t buy the lie: Black Americans are especially vulnerable to coronavirus."
This is where we are.