Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "Veritasium"
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Before the internet: if we read something in the newspapers or heard in on TV - we had a hard time to fact check our dear media or politicians.
The bias and sloppyness (and CIA infiltration in the US and in all major NATO countries) of mainstream media was exposed. So the genie is out of the bottle - no going back to pre-internet blind trust in the "institutions".
And that trust has been abused many times (as we now can know), the citizens are right to assume that they WILL BE LIED TO, and it is a lot of work, and often impossible to find out WHEN and in WHAT respect "they" are lying.
One staff member of UK health authorities blew the whistle on Creutzfeldt Jakob or Bovine spongiforme Enzephalopathy as soon as he retired - the "authorities" were unwilling to deal with it in time. They were complacent about poor !! people dying from a terrible disease, they accepted MORE economic damage in the future (for the farmers - culling, no export once the scandal become known - as was inevitable).
It was immoral, economically bad, immature, potentially dangerous (no one really know what it was and how it spread - so they risked spreading it further), cowardly, and foolish.
It speaks volumes that the staff in the agency did not DARE to speak up - and that for sure is not the first or last time that the staff in such agencies is silenced.
There are ALWAYS some people who KNOW and if they are not in higher management or occupy a political post in the agency they usually have a conscience and do no like their fellow citizens to be betrayed. But that has to be weighed against legal and financial consequences.
(In Germany one such case went up the the Human Rights Court, the healthcare worker that was fired - by a home run by a muncipality !! - for blowing the whistle about neglect of patients finally won, the German High Court had sided with the employers).
Of course people now do not trust the government and institutions when it comes to health:
example vaccination. Btw I assume harm done by severe vaccination complications is very likely underrepresented and swept under the rug (meaning the parents of a disabled child are dismissed. sure those parents might develo irrational ideas sometimes when they are struck by fate - but there are cases where one gets the impression the authorities fight the parents teeth and nail to avoid having to admit the likely cause was vaccination.
They want to avoid a panic and resistance to mass vaccination - well if the people KNEW they are served well, they could put more trust into the health recommendations. Sort of: "We know it sometimes has an unfortunate outcome, but we work at reducing that risk - and the benefits FAR outweigh the dangers".
I think one CAN sell that to the citizens. if one is honest with them - and admits errors of the past READILY.
it would be better - in the long run - to be truthful. Else people remember when they are not told the full truth - and ask themselves where else they are being deceived.
That would require politicians with a spine, playing the long game (of educating and convincing the public and appealing to their rationality and sense of responsibility - herd immunity etc.). And it would require a scientifically literate media that does not jump at vaccination complications to make money of an unfortunate outcome in few cases.
I am not against vaccination. If the population could trust - then there could be a honest discussion about how bad it used to be before there were vaccines. And how even some casualties are much better than that.
The victims would be compensated - instead of cheating their parents out of the means to care for a disabled child for instance.
And the public would know that
a) there is constant research going on to get better vaccines (actually giving immunity ! and with less severe complications)
b) the government tries to find the best possible compromise between ALL the risks
and c) the vaccination schedule would not overwhelm the little ones. (if in doubt, vaccinate later when the immune system is more mature, spread the shots out over time etc., the US is extreme in Japan they have less shots for infants for instance)
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