"We Don’t Know What’s Going To Happen With COVID & That’s Okay"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVjLT3pinW0&t=34sDoctor Mike:
"Dr. Zubin Damania, or ZDoggMD, is one of the original doctors who brought fun and valuable medical information to YouTube. Given the utter chaos happening around the world right now in regards to COVID-19, I needed to bring in my long time friend and godfather of medfluencing to ease my pain and vent about what’s going on. In this hour-long conversation we hit on all things COVID, from booster shots, masks in schools, mandatory vaccinations, tribalism, trusting Dr. Anthony Fauci, conspiracy theories, the Delta variant, and our prediction for where all of this is heading."
Borrowed from a youTube poster:
Timestamps of the [excellent] discussion:
1:07 tribalism, divisiveness, productive/unproductive/harmful conversations, same goals different tactics
5:03 how to bring back rational thinking and find truth, "alt-middle"
7:54 how social media could be better at managing misinformation
12:27 talking about ideas from various authorities in medicine, how they could communicate better, credibility and integrity (13:19 Fauci example) vs media spins, hard when we talk in soundbytes about things too complex for that
17:33 more about Dr. Mike's evidence rating scale idea, good and bad of social media, how to talk about challenging/nuanced ideas, thinking critically vs speaking in absolutes
21:39 the power of empathy, especially when you disagree
23:49 human connection, seeing the good, helping others understand, antivaxxers, correlation vs causation, how to understand the data, don't villainize people
26:59 thoughts on vaccine mandates, coercion vs communication, risks and benefits,
28:55 we have more people to save, more deaths than just COVID-19 as hospitals are overrun and can't treat other ailments and overall health worsens
31:23 how to get people to change their behavior, social pressure is needed (but doesn't have to be bad), systems thinking balanced with individual behavior,
33:25 financial effect of shutdowns, how to save the most lives, target efforts where you have a better chance to intervene, responsibility
36:25 responsibility to help people make good decisions, bad political declarations that might be harmful or later need to change, difficulty handling this as a politician because of how our system works
39:20 where do you see this heading, comfort from vaccination prospects vs fire that is delta variant, changing dynamics, maintaining immune response,
43:36 future prediction, boosters, closing schools, kids at risk?
46:27 masking in schools, distance learning disadvantages lower socioeconomic kids, use de-escalation strategies as we ease back in (keep masks/distance, watch and see, don't change too many variables at once) to make in-person learning as safe as possible
48:59 people resistant to being told what to do, latching on to false things because we want them to be true
50:22 randomized controlled trials needed (but we don't have the time to risk, so mask up in the meantime), we don't have all the info and that's hard, follow the science
52:52 cognitive bias and info we want to disagree with, benefits of having humility to challenge our previous thinking and adjust to new info
54:38 hard to keep up with all the new info, people are desperate for less biased sources, important to take a break and connect as regular humans too, not just fixating on doom and gloom
57:00 the evidence for months has been to get vaccinated
57:37 variants: how and why they happen, how a variant can be most effective at hurting us, where can it go from Delta
1:02:17 Dr. Damania variant prediction
1:03:43 final thoughts
Your thoughts?
