On Being a Covid "Expert"
I’ve been discussing with some people how concerned we are that Covid is being whitewashed away and the policies that hurt millions are being ignored. It's super frustrating that a good portion of the world is ignorant and naive about what really happened during Covid.
But in many ways, this is an expected phenomenon.
If you were here from Day 1 in early 2020, you'd only have to clock 4 to 6 hours a day on average to accrue 10K hours of experience and become an "expert" in this subject. When I think about other subjects where I have similar knowledge (musical theater, Mormonism, ML/AI, political fundraising), I have a similar reaction. I get SUPER frustrated when I hear people singing the praises of Andrew Lloyd Weber or attribute something that is a data array and not machine learning or AI. My reaction (snotty as it might be): “Their knowledge is pedestrian, I've answered a thousand times, but it keeps coming back because that's the default of this entire world.”
Think about your expertise. How many times does the mainstream media or the general public misunderstand entirely or spout straight-up myths and lies about that subject compared to your robust knowledge?
The BIG difference here is we feel compelled to save the world. Starlight Express is novel tripe, but if I can't convince the world of that - no biggie. Sondheim's Passion will never be a hum-able barn-burner - but it's one of the greatest pieces of theater ever! I’ll likely go to my grave with that opinion :)
Covid is different because we have the added context of societal impact.
To sum up: we know too much for our own good to remain in polite society when they discuss Covid... but if we don't keep the pressure on - polite society is done for.
I need your help.
Attention is waning.
We still need to fight this.
I’m asking you to become a paid member today for this Substack. I’m trying to pay for an intern and other editorial help this summer. We have a REALLY special project putting all of this data in a ChatGPT server and allowing people to query MASSIVE data from dozens of documents and websites from Team Reality.
Consider a one-time annual subscription of $70 or just $7 a month.
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