Pandemic diseases, due largely to their alarmist and apocalyptic propaganda, have reduced some humans to a sorry showcase of fears and vulnerabilities. The virus has also revealed weak health care systems, as well as unprepared and incapable medical infrastructure and hospital systems. All these while some people concoct conspiracy theories and accuse giant pharmaceutical multinationals for unleashing a designed virus. This begs the question: what is the ‘defense for the mind games of a virus,’ just as the World Health Organization and the United Nations have already issued the warning for an impending second wave of infection that will be far more devastating?
According to a health official, ‘most people seem to fall into one of two categories when it comes to H1N1. “There’s a group of people who think it’s all gone and over. There’s a group who say, ‘Armageddon is going to happen!’ The trick is getting people to the middle.” Research into human decision-making has shown that if people feel as though they can influence their destiny, they tend to make smarter choices. But if authorities warn them not to panic (as President Obama has done), people may make worse decisions. They feel more frightened — not less — and wonder what they don’t know that might make them panic.’
It seems that people panic more when you tell them not to worry. They readily suspect that something is truly terribly wrong. If people cannot get the pertinent information from authorities, they will look for it somewhere else. This is the gap where mythologies and conspiracy theories tend to breed.
Via TIME
