Pandemic denial: why some people can't accept COVID-19's realities (Article)

A couple of psychologists propose reasons why some people remain in denial about the seriousness, even the existence, of the pandemic.

The essence of their argument is that, for some people, loss of power over some or all aspects of their lives is so threatening for them that they prefer to go into denial, sometimes total, rather than try to deal rationally with the problem.

From the article:

"Denial is a way for people to defend themselves against anxiety. When they're in periods where there's a lot of anxiety and it's perceived as a threat, then people develop strategies to protect themselves, their sense of security and safety. And one of these is simply to deny that whatever the threatening source is exists."

"Denial sometimes gets confused with rationalization, which is when people try to explain away or diminish the threat of the source of anxiety. When people say, "Covid-19 is just another flu," they're admitting that it exists, but they're minimizing it and saying it's not as severe as everybody is saying."

"Whether you react to situations with stress and anxiety or you react more positively by figuring out how to deal with them has to do with your sense of control over those situations."

"Some people felt a lot of anxiety and stress, and at that point, we have to figure out how to deal with that so we can function. For some, that's creating a myth about the pandemic or simply seeking out information that will reinforce their viewpoint that it's not really as severe as people are saying."

"(If you're in denial) Then you probably won't take the proper necessary precautions to protect yourself."

"When adults have been raised in an environment where unfounded beliefs were a part of their upbringing, they are much more likely to believe in conspiracy theories and hoaxes."

The authors then go on to suggest a possible technique for helping deniers face reality better:

"A person needs to be forced to face it and do something about it. This is best done in phases. Start out by presenting the individual with contradictory, factual information that's not so threatening along with what they can do to protect themselves. Once they begin to accept it, then you escalate the intensity of the realistic information in stages until they more fully accept it and achieve a greater sense of control."

Perhaps that makes sense. Get a denier to accept some small reality about the pandemic, then another and then another, until he eventually concludes for himself that maybe his views of denial need to be modified.

An interesting read.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/16/health/pandemic-covid-19-denial-mental-health-wellness/index.html

No question if you are over 65, the virus is a real and present danger but I think denial can go both ways. People cannot believe the reality if the actual data does not match what they have been told repeatedly over a period of time.

Deeeeeep in another thread I posted this data that is being used by the CDC to estimate the IFR. The acronym IFR stands for infection fatality rate....the rate at which people will die if they get infected.

Here is the source
https://www.acsh.org/news/2020/06/23/coronavirus-covid-deaths-us-age-race-14863

Here is the interesting table in text. It is an image in the report.

Age Group, IFR
5-9 Years, 0.0016% or .016 people per thousand infected

10-19, 0.00032% or 0.0032 people per thousand infected

20-49, 0.0092% or 0.092 people per thousand infected

50-64, 0.14% or 14 people per thousand infected

65 and over, 5.6% or 56 per thousand infected

The data show that if you are aged less than 50 and are infected the chance of dying is about 11 per 100,000 infected.

For comparative risk look at this table.

https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-mortality-risk

After non-stop coverage of this for 6 months, faced with that number, how many of us would be “in denial” about that information?

Stephen, I just want to point out that the data you cite is NOT the data being used by the CDC to determine IFR by age. What you are showing is from a very small (286) sampling of deaths over 3 months in Geneva, Switzerland only. There is no question that COVID affects the older population with more severity than the younger population but your publishing of these statistics does nothing to bolster your case that COVID is no worse than the common cold....

Jim