bad-faith discourse, widespread trolling, and organized brigading have created an information ecosystem in which the top public health accounts on twitter have to speak in koans.
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No wonder so many COVID researchers have thrown in the towel and left twitter. This is what happens every damn time anyone tries to say something thoughtful instead of virtue-signaling their allegiance to one extreme position or the other.
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The serious discussions about COVID are no longer taking place on twitter. One could stay around and do scicomm or outreach here—but efforts to do so end up being a perpetual reminder that the fable of the scorpion and the frog contains more truth than one would like it to.
Covid Twitter
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Woodchopper
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Covid Twitter
The excellent Carl T Bergstrom writes about why the experts aren’t on Twitter nearly as much as they were: https://twitter.com/ct_bergstrom/status ... tr93otF8TA
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Woodchopper
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Re: Covid Twitter
https://twitter.com/andrew_croxford/sta ... obzaledArQOne of the annoying things about having a large-ish account is that if you tweet an opinion that generates discussion, you inevitably end up in North American feeds where I simply don’t recognize the aggression & hysteria. It’s like a parallel universe.
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Woodchopper
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Re: Covid Twitter
The excellent Meaghan Kall points out that:
https://twitter.com/kallmemeg/status/15 ... Vshn4FRI5QI’ve definitely scaled back my COVID-19 posts.
Not because the new science isn’t interesting. It is.
But because in adding to the COVID-19 conversation I am accused of perpetuating fear, and in not constantly insisting on more measures, I’m a minimiser.
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What puts me off, as @CT_Bergstrom articulates well, is that the serious discussion held between both scientists and non-scientists is no longer happening on #COVIDTwitter. It’s gone toxic.
And I miss it.