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The spread of covid-19 in the South shows the risks of anti-intellectualism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/08/04/spread-covid-19-south-shows-risks-anti-intellectualism/
Skepticism about science and expertise has long permeated the Bible Belt (Ya think????)
By Laura Ellyn Smith
Laura Ellyn Smith received her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, Arch Dalrymple III department of history. She is currently teaching American Politics at Canterbury Christ Church University.
August 4, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
After initially striking the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, covid-19 has spread throughout the country, and now the states with the highest new cases per capita are those across the South and Southwest. The Bible Belt, which stretches from South Carolina, through the Deep South, west across Texas and Arizona, has seen high numbers of cases.
And although the United States has seen cases everywhere, these states’ early reopening plans and hands-off measures, most recently a ban by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on local mask requirements, reflect a cultural emphasis on prioritizing freedom from government dictate — and an anti-science bias rooted in the history of the region.
Many people have resisted even simple measures — including social distancing and the now highly politicized wearing of masks — that public health officials indicated might be enough to contain the novel coronavirus. In some Florida localities, for example, opponents of requirements to wear masks claimed that the idea of their providing protection was based on “pseudoscience.” During a court hearing to consider mandating mask-wearing in Palm Beach County, opponents told lawmakers, “You are not God,” citing how those who support masks “want to throw God’s wonderful breathing system out.”
In June, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, openly warned of the risks resulting from this rampant “anti-science bias” and anti-intellectualism, which has only risen on the right during the Trump administration. And while this phenomenon is deeply historically rooted, covid-19 is exposing how dangerous it can be to public health when expert recommendations are ignored and undermined.
Where did this anti-science bias come from? It became rooted in Southern culture and politics with the Scopes Trial, popularly known as the Monkey Trial, in 1925 in Dayton, Tenn.
</snip>
Skepticism about science and expertise has long permeated the Bible Belt (Ya think????)
By Laura Ellyn Smith
Laura Ellyn Smith received her Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi, Arch Dalrymple III department of history. She is currently teaching American Politics at Canterbury Christ Church University.
August 4, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
After initially striking the Northeast and Pacific Northwest, covid-19 has spread throughout the country, and now the states with the highest new cases per capita are those across the South and Southwest. The Bible Belt, which stretches from South Carolina, through the Deep South, west across Texas and Arizona, has seen high numbers of cases.
And although the United States has seen cases everywhere, these states’ early reopening plans and hands-off measures, most recently a ban by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on local mask requirements, reflect a cultural emphasis on prioritizing freedom from government dictate — and an anti-science bias rooted in the history of the region.
Many people have resisted even simple measures — including social distancing and the now highly politicized wearing of masks — that public health officials indicated might be enough to contain the novel coronavirus. In some Florida localities, for example, opponents of requirements to wear masks claimed that the idea of their providing protection was based on “pseudoscience.” During a court hearing to consider mandating mask-wearing in Palm Beach County, opponents told lawmakers, “You are not God,” citing how those who support masks “want to throw God’s wonderful breathing system out.”
In June, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, openly warned of the risks resulting from this rampant “anti-science bias” and anti-intellectualism, which has only risen on the right during the Trump administration. And while this phenomenon is deeply historically rooted, covid-19 is exposing how dangerous it can be to public health when expert recommendations are ignored and undermined.
Where did this anti-science bias come from? It became rooted in Southern culture and politics with the Scopes Trial, popularly known as the Monkey Trial, in 1925 in Dayton, Tenn.
</snip>
No duhhhhh...
1 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Better doctors?
Better hospitals?
More healthy Swedes?
Less obesity in Sweden?
