Evolutionarily COVIDIOTS

"We are wired by evolution to respond to immediate threats."
"We have this kind of general bias that things will be okay, that I'm smarter than most people, that I'm better looking than most people. Things will work out."
"[Throughout normal life that attitude can be useful in self-esteem and getting ahead] but if it's a matter of transmitting a disease, it's not such a good idea."
Robert Gifford, professor of psychology and environmental studies, University of Victoria

"My concern right now is that the way we report on [new] cases is flawed. We keep talking about 400 new cases or 500 [new] confirmed cases with limited testing and 10,000 tests backlogged and testing restricted to a very specific population. There's tens of thousands of cases likely in Ontario right now. We should be leading with that."
"Obviously, that false sense of security is going to get dashed to hell in a week or two when we expect to see more of the surge coming. But perhaps with more accurate or more responsible discussion of case numbers, even at the tweet level or the bullet point level or the headline level, more people might be taking this more seriously."
Yoni Freedhoff, associate professor of family medicine, University of Ottawa

"The messaging we've had here [has been] 80 percent of COVID-19 cases are mild and it generally only affects older people."
"So a lot of younger people are therefore assuming that they're immune to it. They think it's not going to affect them so they don't see it as a major issue."
Lee Ashton, post-doctoral researcher, University of Newcastle, Australia

Social distancing in Vancouver : The Star

Who hasn't seen the photographs of young men and women disporting themselves on beaches in Miami and Australia, as though nothing can possibly displace the importance of seeing and being seen in venues popular with the young and the audacious for whom there cannot possibly exist any threats to their well-being. The world as we know it is shuddering with trepidation, wincing at the stream of bad news coming out of China, Europe, North America and Oceania, and just beginning to emerge in Africa and the Middle East, but that's of little concern to youth.

It's spring, and young men's fancies turn to showing off, hoping to attract the attention of young women. The world may be on lockdown but life is to be enjoyed, since you only live once and the future stretches ahead, irresistible and exciting. Older people shake their heads, as they always do anyway, when regarding the behaviour of the young. In this particular instance, at this particular time, however, they speak of the "COVIDIOTS" in society; young, self-absorbed, disinterested in the news and for whom self-isolation and social distancing is akin to death.

On the other hand, they are programmed as young people by evolutionary biology to do just that; flirt with danger, exhibit themselves, invite fortune to reward them. So it could be that though the young are scorned for their lack of attention and rational choices where danger looms large and they are exposed to doomsday scenarios that they reject and prefer to ignore, there are those who instead point the finger of accountability at the messengers and their flawed reasoning.

A view of the crowds at Bondi Beach on March 21 as beachgoers ignore social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus outbreak.  REUTERS/Loren Elliott

In an age of mass communication and social media transmitting the news canted to their particular social demographics the public is not being entrusted with enough reliable news to impress the young. For one thing, low numbers are being expressed publicly for those inflicted with the virus. Out of concern that a violent reactive panic be avoided, out of a lag of real data likely at least a week old before it is disseminated.

When people are advised through the news media that 400 new cases have emerged in a province with a population of close to 15 million, the threat being conveyed is minimized, even though the chief medical officer of health of the province advised that the true figure is likely closer to ten times that number and steadily growing. The true nature of the swiftly-growing threat to human health is suppressed. People absorb that news and interpret in their minds that it isn't all that serious, after all.

And what the general public perceives is vastly expanded in the perception of young people, and all the more so for young men. This is a universal problem, anywhere disaster looms, the impression it makes on the minds of the young is depressed. "...A lot of younger people are therefore assuming that they're immune to it [in the assumption that it strikes only the elderly and health-impaired]", stresses Lee Ashton in Australia whose research involves young men, messaging and nutrition.

He has a solution to the problem of delivering sober messages to the young: stop focusing on "social distancing" and "flattening the curve. I would just be as clear as possible. Three words: stay at home. And only leave to shop ... once a week. And that's it", he stressed. Clear, consistent, uncomplicated messaging, critical to ensure that the impression of danger is not only threatening others but the young as well, emphasized Spanish researcher Elias Fernandez Comingos, who studies collective risk. "This is a big problem".

Florida, msn.com