[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #77 THE FEAR PANDEMIC WORSENS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #77

December 1, 2021                                                 

Facts #7 

A Mental Health Alert

 

THE FEAR PANDEMIC WORSENS

 

It was reported this week that there's a new variant, the omicron.  When it
was reported by a doctor in South Africa, the doctor said that those who had
catch it had "very mild symptoms" and they were all treated at home.  No
hospitalizations.  That was the "fact."  Oh, yes, there was one more "fact"-
there is, as of today, not a single case at this date in the United States.

 

But facts have to be interpreted.  And that is exactly what the mainstream
media did, the President did, and Wall Street did.  However, how they
interpreted it and the kind of reasoning they used in interpreting it
created an even bigger problem.  Yes they reasoned from the facts but they
did not do a very good job in reasoning.

           The media covered this new fact and then started using all kinds
of projective conjectures about it- Will this cause more shut-downs?  Will
this spread all around the world and kill more people?  In watching the news
on NBC, ABC, MSNBC and CNN last night- it was their lead story and they had
Fauci back on making dire predictions about the future.

           The President then put travel bans on eight African Nations.

           New York Governor, Kathy Hochal, reestablished the mask mandate
for New York and urged that hospitals suspend elective surgeries.

           Wall Street panicked on Friday and dropped some 960 points and
then another 600 on Monday.

 

Now, what kind of thinking is all of these over-reactions?  If we open up
the list of cognitive distortions- we see over-generalization, awfulizing,
negative prediction of the future, emotionalizing, blaming, etc.  Talk about
Panic Thinking!   It strikes me as the Fear Pandemic- a hysteric panicking
that has no basis in reality, especially since it is primarily catastrophic
predictions about a potential holocaust. 

 

It also strikes me as more media miscarriage of information.  The media is
supposed to deal with facts and science, not wild conjectures.  Yet because
fear, disaster, problems, threats, etc. "sell newspapers," the media seems
unable to help itself from fear-mongering.  True journalists are supposed to
be the guardians of facts, to objectively present the truth and let it
stand.  Now things may change, but as of right now, the medical doctors in
South Africa have only said that the variant has "very mild symptoms."  You
would think that should be good news.

 

If "the truth shall set us free" and if the best policy is to follow the
facts, and the science, then one of the biggest problems we have today is
the media.  So, be skeptical what you hear via both the mainstream media and
the social media.  Ask questions about the facts and about the kind of
thinking and reasoning people are applying to the facts.  

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

 

 

132607 NeuroSemantics Executive Learning Front Cover

 

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