I think most people don't understand how much more lethal this is than most. Seeing "bird flu" in the news makes lay people connect it with the kind of flu they're familiar with, the "drink lots of fluids and get some rest" kind.
Comments
Log in with your Bluesky account to leave a comment
Yeah I dashed off a reply as I was scrolling through the TL and expressed myself poorly. I wasn't trying to dismiss how dangerous it is, just saying that "flu" in the popular imagination is something that might lay you up for a few days, not something potentially lethal and terrifying.
We are dealing with a lot of ignorance around personal and public health...agree that messaging needs to be carefully crafted to manage public perceptions and curb misconceptions: both about flue in general and bird flu specifically.
Maybe if they stopped calling a stomach bug or mild headcold "flu" and instead accurately used it to describe the virus that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year, including a few hundred children?
I mean, you've got a point, but it IS an influenza virus. What would you suggest, in a society where people are primed to make accusations of deliberate intent to mislead, and generate conspiracism in the wake of framings they don't understand?
Maybe language like "bird flu, which is almost always fatal in birds"? This still wouldn't be strictly true, but at least it would get across the seriousness of it in the current context.
"People ignore the easily accessible information about how serious seasonal influenza can be for humans, but if we call 'bird flu' something else they will pay attention to how serious it is for chickens"
Vaccines really are a prime example of "victims of their own success." They're been so wildly effective that people think they're unnecessary because the diseases they prevent "aren't a problem anymore" and never quite follow through that logic to the end...
Like the old lady who stops taking her blood pressure medication because she tested her blood pressure and it was fine ... when she was taking medication for it.
Comments
That's gonna change though with RFK in charge of HHS and declining vaccine rates.