#covid-19 considerable questions

[angels-heap]

Saw a post in the tag that's like "do you think the Half Life series is an allegory for the COVID-19 pandemic?" and putting aside that it can't really be an allegory for something that happened decades after it was released... I'd say the answer to that question is a very emphatic no.

The Half Life series is about how a horrible freak science accident happened and made everyone's lives considerably worse in a very short time, and then humanity spent 20 years working together to fix it. The COVID-19 pandemic has proven that when horrible freak science accidents happen in the real world and make everyone's lives considerably worse in a very short time, humanity will pretend to care for about 1.5 years and then gleefully, spitefully, cruelly throw everyone who survived the first wave to the wolves. People in the HL2 universe gave up their lives for the greater good. Most of y'all won't even wear a fucking mask to the grocery store.

#K talks #public health protocols have actually REGRESSED over the last few years #not only are people not wearing masks or cleaning the air even though we know this shit is airborne #healthcare providers are actively NOT taking steps to protect vulnerable patients that were standard pre-2019 #I'm so fucking sick of this

[tomorrowusa]

Not everybody is a highly informed political junkie. And with the decline of legit news outlets, it's increasingly difficult for average citizens to keep up.

On top of that, people have surprisingly short memories. There are actually some who regard the Trump era as an era of prosperity; they have apparently forgotten that his incompetence botched the pandemic response and sent the economy into almost instant recession.

This lack of credible information along with sketchy memories have given Trump a boost - for now.

Celinda Lake, one of President Biden’s top pollsters on his 2020 campaign, was recently conducting a focus group with swing voters for another client when a response stopped her cold. Lake had asked how the voters felt about former president Donald Trump’s pending criminal court cases related to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “They go, ‘What court case around January 6?’” she recalled. “These were swing voters, and about half of them weren’t sure what we were talking about. And I said, ‘Well, you know, the insurrection and that he was the one that provoked it.’ They go, ‘Oh, yeah. I kind of forgot about that.’” For journalists and the types of highly engaged voters who watch the news every night, Trump’s lock on renomination has been near-certain for at least six months, and his various transgressions and incendiary comments are well known. But it’s easy for political obsessives to lose sight of how little attention many normal people pay to day-to-day politics.

We've all heard the expression "low information voter". This is a problem we need to address.

The New York Times’ Jennifer Medina and Reid Epstein tackled this question earlier this week with a piece aptly headlined “Do Americans Have a ‘Collective Amnesia’ About Donald Trump?”  It’s very much worth a read. They write: “More than three years of distance from the daily onslaught has faded, changed—and in some cases, warped—Americans’ memories of events that at the time felt searing. Polling suggests voters’ views on Mr. Trump’s policies and his presidency have improved in the rearview mirror. In interviews, voters often have a hazy recall of one of the most tumultuous periods in modern politics.”

Another group to take into consideration are younger voters. An average graduating high school senior this year was in the 8th grade when Trump was telling Americans to drink bleach and take quack medicines for COVID-19 in the early months of the pandemic.

Part of the problem is that many voters, especially the crucial bloc of younger ones, simply don’t remember Trump that well. Those turning eighteen and eligible to vote for the first time this fall were just ten years old and in grade school when Trump won the presidency, in 2016; the January 6 Capitol riots happened back when most of them were just starting high school. The rest of us don’t have memories that are as sharp and reliable as we’d like to think—it’s not just Joe Biden and Donald Trump who regularly get names wrong or forget in what year things occurred.

And if this cohort was just 13/14 in early 2020, then they would have been 8 or 9 when Trump started running for president in 2015 when he was calling Mexicans "rapists" and "murderers".

Case in point: When Trump launched his 2016 campaign by calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “murderers,” it dominated the news and became one of the most-remembered lines of the campaign. His recent claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” generated headlines but didn’t dominate coverage. On Thursday, he declared in his State of the Union “prebuttal” that Biden is “keeping the hordes of illegal migrants and illegal aliens pouring into the country,” and claimed that “many come from mental institutions, many come from prisons, they’re terrorists.” Few major news organizations wrote stories focusing on the comments.

We can't assume that people may be as informed as we are. We need to patiently explain, while providing sources, how Trump is not normal and is a danger to the country's future.

Of course journalists have to compete with the upcoming tsunami of ads and even disinformation.

Potential voters who don’t read the news won’t be able to escape what could be a combined $1 billion in campaign spending in the swing states. It’s been a lot easier to avoid Trump since he left the White House and Twitter. That won’t be so true in the heat of a presidential general election. Journalists have to keep in mind that voters in swing states may not be thinking of all the details now, but they’re likely to be much more attuned by the time they vote. 

When we run across articles or news vids about MAGA Republicans which are well produced and don't require a lot of background information to understand, we should share them with low information voters we know. If there's a good cartoon which amplifies the points made in the article, send it along. There's no rule which says you can't be informative and entertaining at the same time.

This applies to current stuff as well as the disastrous Trump presidency. Reminding people that Trump sabotaged immigration reform and improved border security through his House flunky Speaker "MAGA Mike" Johnson is essential.

A sure way to lose the election is to assume that we don't need to do anything. As I've said before, the era of slackerism is over; being politically and civically engaged is the price of democracy.

#low information voters #voter education #first time voters #collective amnesia #trump administrstion #donald trump #botched handling of the pandemic response #unnecessary covid-19 deaths #trump border crisis #assault on the us capitol by pro-trump terrorists #emoluments #trump is not normal #trump scandals #election 2024 #vote blue no matter who

[mariacallous]

This month the World Trade Organization threw in the towel on COVID-19. Medicines like Paxlovid have been plentiful in the U.S. and Europe, but because of insufficient supplies and high prices, hardly anyone in Africa, Asia, and Latin America has had access. After more than three years of debate, the WTO declared on Feb. 13 that it was unable to reach agreement on waiving global patent rules for COVID-19 treatment to ease the way for expanded production.

Those confused about why the WTO is even still debating COVID-19 nearly a year after the public health emergency was declared over by the World Health Organization can be forgiven. Not only is this slow speed not what the world needs in a pandemic, it is also not how the World Trade Organization is supposed to work, and begs questions on WTO’s relevance in a multi-crisis world. It also makes clear that responsibility for the global governance of pandemic-related technology and intellectual property cannot remain with the WTO.

As negotiations have reconvened this week in Geneva over a new Pandemic Treaty, the question of which organizations should manage the response is a live question. Some negotiators are pushing for a role for the world’s health ministers and the World Health Organization on intellectual property, but the U.S. negotiator and others say these questions should stay with the WTO. The WTO’s failure, though, make this an increasingly untenable position: If the WTO cannot act in a pandemic to remove patents barriers and promote sharing of technology so the world can produce enough medicines and vaccines, then the WHO must be empowered to do so.

When the World Trade Organization was created in 1995, it marked a fundamental change to international trade law. Where the international system it replaced had primarily dealt with flow of goods across borders, WTO rules expanded the definition of “trade” to include the intangible—including patents on pharmaceuticals. All members were required to enforce 20-year monopolies over making new medicines. As the late scholar Susan Sell described it, this was a remarkable act of “forum shifting.” Before that, patents (effectively government-granted monopolies) were not part of “free” trade. Into the 1970s, many rich countries such as Italy and Japan did not allow patents on medicines, and many developing countries like India, Brazil, and Mexico had continued to exclude medicines from patent monopolies into the 1990s. But they were convinced to expand intellectual property in the new WTO agreement with a promise of “technology transfer” and a requirement that wealthy countries incentivize their companies to share with least-developed countries. This has not gone as promised.

The first effective medicines in the AIDS pandemic arrived just as the WTO came into being. It quickly became clear this debate about globally enforceable intellectual property was life-or-death as patents proved a major barrier to access. Twelve million Africans died between 1997 and 2007 with AIDS medicines too expensive and pharmaceutical companies blocking affordable generic versions. Eventually manufacturers in India, Brazil, South Africa, and elsewhere overcame barriers and made the drugs at a 99 percent lower cost. Today 30 million people are on treatment and cutting-edge medicines costs less than $50 per year.

Did drug companies voluntarily relent? Unfortunately, no. Dozens of low- and middle-income country governments issued “compulsory licenses” forcing drug companies to allow local producers to make HIV medicines. Activists pressured companies to drop their price and share their technology. The WTO eventually agreed on the “Doha Declaration” clarifying WTO rules allowing countries “flexibilities” to make affordable medicines and special consideration during emergencies. It took over a decade, but eventually the Medicines Patent Pool was created to facilitate voluntary sharing of technology—though companies only joined because compulsory alternatives left them little choice.

When the pandemic hit, these structures to transfer technology were all available, but world leaders decided to only use the voluntary elements—an approach that failed spectacularly. Scientists delivered vaccines in record time. Highly effective mRNA vaccines were developed in under a year and treatments followed. Paxlovid proved among the most effective—a long-standing HIV drug combined with a new drug similar to HIV antiretrovirals. Costa Rica and the WHO proposed a mechanism to pool technology and patents even before medicines were developed and approved. Over 100 different drug and vaccine manufacturers around the world were prepared to make them, several even showing they could reverse engineer mRNA vaccines. But no drug company agreed to share its technology, and none of the governments where companies were based compelled them to.

With neither a relaxation of WTO rules nor enough voluntary sharing to enable factories in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to expand supply, global leaders backed a set of voluntary efforts for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). COVAX, the international effort to procure and equitably distribute vaccines, tried to secure vaccines from companies like Pfizer and Moderna. Predictably, however, COVAX quickly discovered high-income countries were locking up global supplies by using economic and political power to secure preferential access from companies. By the end of the first year, less than 1 percent of all vaccines had gone to low-income countries. Medicines fared no better. One analysis showed need for Paxlovid exceeded supply in LMICs by 8 million doses—leaving 90 percent without access. The lowest reported price was $250—200 percent of the average per capita spending on all health in lower middle-income countries.

These shortages had consequences. Analyses show as many as 27 million lives lost to the pandemic, many of which were preventable. Beyond the direct effect, dangerous coronavirus variants swept the world from contexts of high transmission and low vaccinated immunity. The pandemic has been longer and more damaging because of an artificially limited global supply of countermeasures.

Throughout this time the WTO was locked in debate. South Africa and India proposed a temporary waiver of WTO rules on all COVID-19 products during the pandemic. Pharmaceutical industry lobbyists cast this as a dangerous idea, launching a campaign against it claiming “voiding patents” would undermine innovation for pandemic products. In reality, a waiver does not take away IP rights. It simply suspends global rules temporarily, giving policymaking authority back to national governments to decide whether to enforce patents on pandemic-products during the pandemic without threat of WTO-linked sanctions. A waiver alone would not have solved the pandemic supply problem, which also required shared know-how and expanded manufacturing. But it would have removed threats of lawsuits for companies making financial and infrastructure investments in production lines and threat of sanctions from powerful states for governments allowing local production.

The WTO is supposed to be able to use mechanisms like waivers to respond to crises in a matter of weeks, not years. The Marrakesh Agreement explicitly includes a provision on waivers, stating the General Council must act within 90 days on a waiver request, assuming consensus, but falling back to a vote of three-fourths of members. Every year multiple WTO waivers are granted on issues from pharmaceuticals to diamonds to preferential trade for neighbors. But since 2020, the WTO’s efforts to pass a waiver in the middle of a world-changing event hit institutional and ideological roadblocks. Even as heads of state weighed in and wide swaths of the global economy depended on stopping the coronavirus, the institutional structure encouraged gridlock. Despite seemingly supportive law, the WTO’s structures encourage narrow interest-group politics, excluding actors with a broader public interest and economic agenda.

Narrowly-focused intellectual property negotiators framed the COVID-19 issue in ways that insulated negotiators, focused on footnotes and eligibility instead of stopping the pandemic, and gave an effective veto to trade negotiators from a few states with strong pharmaceutical lobbies. By the time the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference rolled around in June 2022, a simple pandemic-long waiver proposed two years earlier had morphed into a complicated mechanism that several developing countries declared unworkable. It only covered vaccines, pushing treatments to further negotiations. Eight months of more negotiations yielded no further progress, leading to the WTO’s declaration of no agreement last week.

It is time for a new forum shift. Negotiations over a new Pandemic Treaty are intensifying as negotiators hope for a May conclusion. The draft agreement includes a commitment to waive intellectual property during a pandemic and to use WTO flexibilities to produce pandemic-fighting products. These are the minimum steps to make the whole world safer. President Joe Biden already supported a patent waiver during the pandemic and is using these flexibilities at home, including “march-in” rights to limit patent monopolies on high-priced drugs in the U.S. The U.S. negotiator’s opposition suggests misaligned foreign policy.

But the agreement should go further. Given the WTO’s repeated failure, the new agreement should shift authority to waive patent rules to the World Health Assembly. And it should include a binding agreement to share publicly funded technologies for global production. States delegated authority to the WTO, which has proved a barrier rather than an asset in pandemics. Taking it back is just good governance.

[veggiefritters]

Ray Bradbury, an opinion by me.

There is little that I like about Ray Bradbury's work (I have only read two by the way, my opinion is based on those (All Summer In A Day and The Pedestrian)). I personally think that yes, his writing is well-constructed and a good example of how to use figurative language and metaphors, but beyond that the ideas he writes about feel too outlandish for me to really appreciate his work for what it is.

In no world are humans ever going to become as addicted to their televisions as he suggests in The Pedestrian. Humans always have and always will experience the urge to not only rebel against authority, but but also return to nature and creativity.

Perhaps Ray Bradbury intends to make his audience upset with these writings. Perhaps their purpose is to deter humans from letting this become our future. If that is what he intends, then I respect him for it.

However, from the two that I've read, it doesn't come across as that. Maybe this is because both stories were published in 1950, but regardless, if these are not satirical, it seems foolish to think that humans would really become that attached to being inside and listening to authority (as seen in The Pedestrian) or allow themselves to be in a place where they can only go outside for one hour every seven years (All Summer In A Day).

This has been shown very well in the past few years. Covid 19, with people being stuck in their houses - and not even permanently, allowed out for short periods of exercise on the daily for some parts of the lockdowns - caused so many mental health issues and suicides related to the pandemic.

Looking at how governments all over the world are reacting to what has been happening in Gaza, for example, or the USA's anti-abortion laws, and laws that are so harmful to the LGBTQ+ community (specifically transgender people), a lot less people are willing to trust the government than Ray Bradbury seems to have predicted in The Pedestrian.

Not only this, but governments all over the world are putting restrictions on the media that the people of their countries are allowed to engage with. The plot point of people being encouraged to watch their televisions so much is no longer realistic.

Ray Bradbury's work is impressive in that it uses good narrative techniques. Part of the horror in dystopian fiction comes from the chance that it could actually happen at some point in the future. The world has changed considerably in the past 70 years. Much of it is for the better, and a lot of it is for the worse. The changes we as a society have faced have made it incredibly unlikely for something similar to the two books, The Pedestrian and All Summer In A Day, to play out in real life. This removes much of the horror from those books, thus making them far less interesting to read now than they would have been even 40 years ago.

Oh my lord I am so sorry about this. I got really bored trying to answer questions about All Summer In A Day for English. Don't come at me, pretty please.

#ray bradbury #rant #rant post #oh what the fuck #480 words of suppressed anger #i am so #so sorry

[lo-55]

awww you got a new job? that is so nice, I am so happy for you! I have been looking for a job myself this days but I am awful at interviews. Any tips?

~Ina

My aunt is a hiring manager, so I’m just gonna dump a bunch of stuff at you that she’s told me.

Wear black slacks and a nice shirt, blouse or button up, and a blazer or cardigan over it. Keep jewelry to a minimum. Wear nice black shoes. No sneakers, boots, or sandals.

arrive early, a greet your interviewer with a firm handshake.

Remember: Your interviewer is just another human being, and in the interview itself they are on the same level as you. You are presenting yourself as a candidate, but remember that they are also presenting the business as a place for you to invest your time in. Stay professional, but there’s no need to be overly formal. If you notice something in their office, a sports team, pictures of kids, any merch, comment briefly on it to build rapport. Simple things like, what they thought of the game, or what their favorite episode of parks and rec were, can foster positive relationships even in a short time. I once got a women talking for 15 minutes about her husbands store because he and I worked for the same company. Pro-tip, people love talking about their pets.

during the interview itself, keep your posture engaging by facing the other person and leaning in slightly. Try not to be too rigid. If there are two, turn slightly to whoever is talking immidiately. Keep a notebook or folder with a copy of your resume with you, and a pen as well. Have a list of pre prepared questions written down, for instance;

‘how did your business respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?’

‘What are the expectations for me specifically, should I be chosen for the position?’ ‘

‘What does the day to day workload entail?’

‘Can you give me more details on *thing they mentioned earlier*’

‘What’s something you know about this business/position now that you wish you’d known when you started?’

The questions are the hardest part for me, so I try to prepare them ahead of time.

when they ask you questions, don’t feel like you have to answer right away. You can take a minute to think of your answer, or ask them to rephrase if it didn’t make sense. This shows you’re paying attention, especially if it’s not one you prepared for ahead of time. Typically you’ll be asked about prior experiences, times you worked through challenges or disagreements with your coworkers or customers, values, etc.

Always make sure that you right down what the advertisement said the pay rate was, and before the interview is over make sure you get the details on salary, PTO, and health care. Whoever said don’t talk about pay in an interview is an idiot, you don’t want to waste your time on a place that you can’t pay your bills at. At the end of the interview shake hands with them, thank them for their time and consideration and walk confidently out.

In a day or two give the place a call or email them to ask if they’ve made a decision yet. You want to seem eager to work, but not desperate.

#lo speaks #answered ask #interview advice #Advice #jobs

[marsiansweeney]

Russia/Ukraine After Virality: What Happens when the West Loses Interest?

The memeification of politics has been accelerating at a fevered pace since Trump’s 2016 electoral upset, with multiple internet-based candidates vying for president in the years since and the national consciousness dragged around by the nose by the internet “discourse” and it’s suckers in the non-digital press, only to be exacerbated further by locking everyone inside with their phones for two years. People’s understanding of politics is now not just mediated by memes and cursory readings of the titles of articles, it consists primarily of the memes themselves. The drive to participate in the current ideological fashion trend has crowded out real politics and incorporated political movements into the technical apparatus of the internet and its owners. When this collective schizophrenia of Western public attention shifted its paranoid gaze from race war and the COVID-19 Pandemic to the war in Ukraine, it seemed, perhaps most acutely to the Ukrainians themselves, that a deeply hidden moral fiber had been discovered and activated within the keyboard warriors of the memetic mob. Little did they know that neither the Western World’s screen-addicted populace nor our cynically calculating leaders have any deep concern for anything but entertainment and security. Now, with the war turning in the other direction and American politics shifting toward passionate endorsement and condemnation of xenophobia and genocide, the Ukrainians are left without any clicks in the attention economy.

Ultimately, the optimism of the Ukrainian people that westerners truly had a humanitarian concern for their nation is understandable, but it was also a deep error spawned from a misunderstanding of what the West seeks to gain from a conflict in Eastern Europe. Viewed through the prism of Euroskepticism and pro-Europeanism, it seems like a black and white ideological battle between tolerant European liberal democracy and reactionary Russian autocracy had opened up a flashpoint with the Maidan Revolution, a potential moment of rupture in the status quo out of which something new could be born. The reality, however, is far bleaker. The geopolitical situation, namely an oil-rich, heavily nuclear armed nation whose key regional subjects have been peeling away from it since the ’90s, along with an ever extending military alliance (NATO) whose sole purpose in existence was originally to counter that nation, leaves little room for the consideration of EU regulatory policy or Ukrainian election integrity. Much as the US once used Afghan mujahideen as a tool in the fight against the Soviet Union without regard for the interests of the Afghan people, they are now using the Ukrainian people as an anvil on which to place Putin’s Russia. The crippling sanctions regime and open calls for regime change in Russia, along with the constant implicit threat of nuclear apocalypse on both sides, are the hammer. Because media consumers and Ukrainians fell for the propaganda about the nature of this conflict, the puppet masters behind the scenes in Washington and Moscow have been able to escalate the new “geopolitical era” and reignite the Cold War between Russia and the US, while memetically smuggling in new ideological justifications to replace the old communism vs. capitalism angle in the minds of regular people. It has created a great opportunity for the US defense industry, and for terminally online Twitter “activists” looking for a new flag emoji to put in their display names, but it has also wreaked yet-untold horrors upon the people of Ukraine.

As the meme economy shifts its attention to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians, they too hold some hope for change-from-above, or more correctly, change-from-the-West, in their struggle. I firmly hope that a new stage has been reached in the propaganda battle around the Palestinian question, but I am cautious in trusting the same people who have previously cared passionately about Ukrainians, the elderly/immunocompromised, black victims of police violence, Trump’s “kids in cages”, and many other suffering victims of the US Empire who continue to suffer without even the slightest palliative measures taken to help them. When faced with a seemingly impassable threat, it will always seem wise to call on the power of the Great Satan, but the Faustian bargain must be repaid, and the attention span of Twitter liberals is the collector of the devil’s due. If an empire has its boot on your neck, another empire’s “support” is the last thing you need.

#foreign policy #russia #ukraine #imperialism #propaganda #Palestine #media criticism

[ruthannabelleckl]

Is social media useful in spreading information on Covid-19 in Malaysia?

Covid-19 is claimed to have originated in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019 and ultimately expanded to 200 nations globally (Salman, 2021). Social media, with over billion users, is vital for Malaysia’s government to spread Covid-19 awareness timely and educate the public on precautionary conduct. Social media enables people to generate and share information while socializing, enabling the flow of opinions, notions, and insights in online communities (Hussin et al., 2021). Governmental initiatives to enhance public health via social media have sprouted in the last several years (Dawi et al., 2021).

Navigating the Pandemic Wave: How Social Media Amplified COVID-19 Response in Malaysia

Malaysian citizens have access to Covid-19 updates through social media, including the official Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Twitter account of the Ministry of Health Malaysia, known as “Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (KKM)”. Besides, the Director-General of Health live-streams Covid-19 information on Facebook (Hussin et al., 2021). Notably, the Malaysian Ministry of Health and National Security Council reported Covid-19 cases on Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Twitter when Covid-19 initially affected Malaysia. This move was made because social media can approach individuals quickly with crucial information and updates.

Twitter represents one of the social media channels that the Malaysian government has selected in providing updates on the Covid-19 situation to alert people about maintaining good hygiene practices to prevent the spread of the virus and to share dos and don'ts during the outbreak (Hussin et al., 2021). It was overwhelming when users gave input, participated in online conversations, commented on status or live video broadcasting, tweeted the news, and shared within communities. Public questions, complaints, and misunderstandings can be published on government official pages for speedy replies. Social media content can change people's behavior and reduce the efficacy of government remedies. The Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) tweeted Covid-19 information, covering daily cases, deaths, new patients, discharges, hospitalization, and verified cases to caution the citizens (Hussin et al., 2021). Roughly 20 posts on SOP reminded Twitter users of SOPs such as business operations, purchasing processes, or social events daily. Additionally, MOH published 164 Covid-19 instructions and precautions. For instance, postings mentioned the red zone, where numerous cases were found, and special precautions. Notably, hashtags are frequently included to prioritize Covid-19 information from reliable organizations to make it easy for individuals for browsing later.  

Empowering Malaysia’s COVID-19 Response: MySejahtera

In April 2020, the government launched the MySejahtera mobile application to assist individuals in tracking their health status and registering their locations, allowing authorities to collect timely information in fighting Covid-19 which had a positive impact on people's inclination to be involved in protective behaviours (Dawi et al., 2021). Public health guidelines were more probable to be followed when citizens realized the scenario and government response. The COVID-19 epidemic is updated daily by MySejahtera. For instance, this includes the cumulative confirmed cases and the daily new cases.

Dangers of Social Media Reliance during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Dissemination of False Information

Social media during the Covid-19 epidemic has enabled a rapid dissemination of unverified content, potentially deceiving and perplexing a considerable segment of the public. This encompasses misinformation about drinking warm salts or lemon water and taking hydroxychloroquine for curation (Balakrishnan, 2022). In Malaysia, a notable occurrence was the rise in the dissemination of false information pertaining to the lockdown measures and Covid-19-related information. This surge prompted Malaysian government to establish the Rapid Response Troop as a means to combat the proliferation of fake news, namely sebanarnya.my. Several instances of false information being spread in the country can be observed, such as the circulation of a compilation of locations within the Klang Valley that purportedly have a significant concentration of Covid-19 cases (Balakrishnan, 2022). Relying extensively on social media might increase dread, dissatisfaction, anxiety, and paranoia. Disinformation was spread in Malaysia by locals using fake or anonymous accounts (Salman, 2021). Many people detect deceptive information poorly, particularly on social media. Following the MCO's adoption, people panic-purchase and buy vast amounts of items and non-essentials at supermarkets (Ngadiron et al., 2021).

Disseminating false information is akin to spreading the Covid-19 virus. The battle against fake information persists, and the community requires daily education via diverse platforms. Social media platforms have a significant impact on fostering societal awareness and enhancing interpersonal connections within Malaysian communities.  However, individuals should be cautious, as the proliferation of fabricated information on these platforms is intended to captivate netizens and generate sensationalized or trending discussions.

In my opinion, social media is useful in spreading essential COVID-19 information in Malaysia. It enables the government to swiftly provide updates, guidance, and safeguards to Malaysians. The MySejahtera mobile app, Facebook, and Twitter have allowed direct interaction with individuals, encouraging safety and behavioural alterations. Nevertheless, fighting disinformation is vital. Overall, social media is useful, but it demands careful scrutiny to guarantee information authentication.

List of References

Balakrishnan, V. (2022). COVID-19 and fake news dissemination among Malaysians – motives and its sociodemographic correlates. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 73, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102900

Dawi, N. M., Namazi, H., Hwang, H. J., Ismail, S., Maresova, P., & Krejcar, O. (2021). Attitude toward protective behavior engagement during COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia: The role of e-government and social media. Frontiers in Public Health, 9, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.609716

Hussin, R., Rahman, S. H. A., & Azudin, N. (2021). Social media approach to crisis communication during COVID-19 pandemic: An analysis from Malaysian perspective. Ulum Islamiyyah, 33(S5), 77–88. https://doi.org/10.33102/uij.vol33nos5.404

Ngadiron, S., Aziz, A. A., & Mohamed, S. S. (2021). The spread of COVID-19 fake news on social media and its impact among Malaysians. International Journal of Law, Government and Communication, 6(22), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.35631/ijlgc.6220024

Salman, A. (2021). Knowledge, curiosity, communication channels and panic during COVID-19 movement control order. International Journal of Media and Communication Research (IJMCR), 2(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.25299/ijmcr.v2i1.6205

Statista. (2022). Distribution of main news sources during MCO COVID-19 Malaysia 2020. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1118979/malaysia-main-news-sources-during-covid-19/

#mda20009 #week 7 #social media #public health #covid 19

[not-rude-ginger]

Hi @not-rude-ginger 👋🏻 So, I wanna to ask some questions from the “love themed asked bait”! I reblogged this in my blog so if you wanna check it out, you may! So, would you please answer:

2. do you believe in soulmates?

3. do you believe in love at first sight?

6. what does true love mean to you in four words?

7. what are a few important qualities in a partner?

13. carefully planned date night or spontaneous?

15. do you like romcoms? what's your fave?

16. besides a heart — what symbolizes love to you?

19. how important is falling in love?

20. are you a hopeless romantic?

Thank you so much!! ❤️❤️

Interesting questions!

2. I don't think I do - at least not the idea that there's just one person out there, nor do I think that they are automatic -- I've seen a quote from The Good Place that I really like;

“If soulmates do exist, they’re not found. They’re made.”

I like it because it means you get to choose your soulmates and you can choose to have as many as you like.

3. I find it interesting as a story trope, but I think IRL I'd find it deeply unnerving.

6. Kindness, Consideration, Support, Passion

7. Independence while giving and receiving support, ability to communicate even when it sucks, having their own interests and passions to give them their own time but also talk about with, and being thoughtful.

13. Planned to allow for mental and physical prep (gotta save some spoons for it) but doesn't have to go exactly to plan during.

15. I'm realising I do like some romcoms but most have been fic based because they are character driven and the relationship is particular to the characters. Fave atm is Red, White and Royal Blue - the audiobook had me lol-ing while taking long walks during COVID.

16. I'm not sure - would probably depend on circumstances. Most likely an item I associate with a person, specific to them and me.

19. I've never experienced it, but I think it would freak me out - I'd rather build something deliberately.

20. Possibly. Just on my own terms.

#asked and answered #interesting set!

[etherealsign282]

18) imagine blaming your family for shit when a guy has been trying to teach you this entire time, for 5-6 years, to be considerate and not abusive and communicate, and also any trauma you had doesn't make you abusive. You're abusive because you're abusive.

And I mean, you can't just be annoyed and dislike us and not want to be around us and then get mad when we stop giving you the attention you didn't even want lmao. You want fans, not real people. That's why you can be a performative fuxkwit and suck up all the attention from strangers on fb but in real life you cant fucking handle it because you actually have to tolerate and like people for you to get attention from them. Unless they're an absolute yes man and go with exactly everything you want and like. That's also why you're ass at communicating. You just expect them to listen and follow along and it all goes to shit the second you have to explain yourself or justify what you want bc you only wanted a group of mindless zombies as fans, not people who question you or do things in their unique fashion.

And instead of admitting that you just want what you want without having to talk about it bc you feel entitled, you instead get frustrated bc you just can't word it in a way that doesn't make you sound like a selfish wannabe celebrity. So you'll blame astrology, "trauma", being "stupid", but you'll never blame yourself for having such shallow concepts that you can't even explain them into justifications for people with free will.

19) the amount of times you hugged and went "aww" bc I was going through something and you were still in the lovebombing phase, or all the sorta cute shit you came up with for your character and another traumatized character, and yet somehow, somehow, you conveniently forget how to be compassionate and comfort someone who's suicidal?

You fxcking hug them. Tell them you're there for them. Shit, look at literally ANY damn conversation in which you're threatening yourself or, if you can somehow remember all the times we put in effort instead of conveniently forgetting like every other time, think back to every time we had to comfort you for being suicidal. No, don't think about the times we didn't because it was your fifth threat that week and literally based on you treating us like garbage. Think about what we actually did 99% of the time we had to tolerate you threatening your life bc we had standards and expectations, and what we had to say and do to get you to feel better. All you had to do was apply that. Or, ya know, not withhold affection and then weaponize incompetence like a double-wham-shabam-abuser combo.

If being a little mad makes you forget how to be a good person then you're not a good person, bc while anger is only half your emotional range, if you can only be a good person when you're in a good mood, you're honestly not shit lmao.

20) again just not shutting the fuck up about the COVID thing. The minecraft thing. You being abusive. For a month you had to try and come up to me and justify your abuse with "well but-" like no. I don't care. Let it the fuck go since you're so good at letting go of the bad things you did. Surprisingly enough, the 2017 thing doesn't justify everything you did between 2015 and 2021. You being naturally antisocial to J's family bc you hated everyone in that house and didn't want to be nice to them unless it was about your shitty villain arc story, doesn't justify you abusing J into dropping his girl best friend for you within a few months of your relationship (while pretending it was all in his head to invalidate/gaslight him). It's not the same thing, there is a massive difference between "I feel like they don't like me, that's the same as me telling him I'll k1ll myself if he has a chick friend years before this point". Using anything with "it makes me feel bad" to justify making someone feel 2x worse out of maliciousness, for something accidental they did, instead of communicating like an adult, no go. Starting every conversation with "it doesn't help that-" shut up. Shut the fuck up. And saying "maybe he just read too deep into it" like lmao ok. "Well Ive been changing" literally where because you're still fcking arguing, and now using change to discredit the abuse victim and how they feel? Or "that happened years ago", well what happened to your idea of "I can't get over anything" or is that only bc YOU get to hold petty grudges but real, valid problems against you are too offensive?

Like imagine saying you, being an abusive rxpist (while knowing you're a rxpist and only conveniently forgetting your abusive behaviors when you want to weaponize incompetence bc you were usually the first to brag about them/broadcast them), find it unfair because you purposely ruined his birthday, and then decided you couldn't be broken up with on your birth *fucking month*, as if somehow running from abuse has a time limit or expiration date. You also dismissed and devalued it as being about *being annoyed/irritated* when you ABUSED HIM BY THREATENING YOUR LIFE BECAUSE HE WAS ENJOYING HIS BIRTHDAY. And also demanding more and more emotional labor of us as if it's our fault you couldn't change fast enough, and minimizing your VERBAL AND EMOTIONAL ABUSE as you "complaining" bc we were drifting from an ABUSER. You thought it was just you being a little toxic but you were a danger to our health so no, we couldn't keep fucking going the way we were going. And your changes meant fuck all by that point. In fact you'll defend your shit quite a lot for someone that fucking loves to brag about burning bridges and keeping peace yet you fucking ruined any concept of peace we have with acting like the victim and like you didn't know what the fuck you were doing, when right after this conversation and the last last one we had, you literally started posting bogus shit lies about being a fucking victim and betrayal etc etc. You were fucking aware enough, and just hoping we were stupid enough to feel sorry for someone who didn't deserve that level of sympathy.

Also imagine talking about how you were trying to be better to invalidate our decisions, but you wouldn't give us space and ADMITTED that you complained about it (bc once again you were targeting the byproducts and not the real problems like codependency and control), and continued to fucking complain and victimize your way into being seen as pathetic when YOU ARE NOT JUST TOXIC, YOU ARE AN ABUSER. YOU DO NOT GET THE LUXURIES BECAUSE YOU ARE AN ABUSER. YOU ARE A DANGER AND THREAT TO PEOPLES LIVES, BODIES, AND/OR MENTAL STATE. If you wanted being better taken into consideration, you should've actually TRIED.

Again I don't give a FUCK about your apology after I spent so much breath explaining to you, bc right after you posted that shit you immediately deflected without me saying anything due to a guilty conscience, that it was about everyone except you. Excuse me? Lmao?

#ex abuser chronicles

[lookingfornoonat2pm]

🇮🇱/ 🇵🇸 (Long, and I do mean long post)

A crucial question for analysis of the US response to the situation in Israel/Palestine is actually a pretty simple one: "Why now?"

Why such an outpouring of support for Palestine now, and not 10 years ago, not 20 years ago? What is special about the moment we're in such that the tides of public sentiment have turned so enormously and so suddenly against the Isreali government, among the population of its most powerful supporter?

While sentiments seem to have started to turn in the 1990s, the US response to 9/11, and the launching of the Global War on Terror set the cause of Palestinian liberation back quite significantly. Islamophobia defined American pop culture for nearly a decade. So what happenedb?

There are a host of paranoid answers to this question, and some of them do have real merit. Trumpism and its attendant viciousness mainstreamed some of the most pernicious antisemitism the US has known for some time. The growth in anti-authoritarianism around government failures to handle Covid-19 effectively has also contributed to an environment of paranoia and antisemitism.

"Formal antisemitism", a concept that many on the left are woefully ignorant about, can help explain this. Basically, the idea is that explanations of ruling class behavior that rest on understanding it as "A big club (and you aren't in it)" fundamentally misunderstand capitalism. While there are heirs and royalty and so on, it isn't blood relations or even group affiliation that makes someone a member of the ruling class or not. It is capital and capital alone. If you have it, you are the ruling class. If you don't, you fucken aren't. Formal antisemitism is named so because political efforts to thwart "globalists" and "foreign capital" almost inevitably lead to identifying Jewish people as the "wrong sort of capitalists" (nevermind that Jewish people are mostly workers, like every other ethnic or religious group on Earth). Instead of attacking the structure of ownership of capital itself, formal antisemitism on the left goes for easy, stupid targets, who mostly are regular people. There is a lengthy history of this, but sooner or later, the people fighting "corruption at the top" are soon fighting "Stonemasons" and are then a hair away from calling for killing Jewish people outright.

And it is certainly the case that describing the situation in Israel/Palestine as straightforwardly "colonial" allows radical, idpol-oriented liberals to displace their anxieties about living in a racist country on to a place they can pretend is more "black and white". But there are millions of Jewish Israelis, and no solution to the situation that suggests all these people simply "go back to where they came from" is in any way a serious answer to the question of peace. Antisemitism undoubtedly helps many of these people avoid consideration of this problem, straightforwardly identifying Jewish people as "the wrong sort of whites"--unlike you, nice progressive, radicals (almost universally cultural wasps).

But all of these paranoid explanations for the opposition to Israel do not help make sense of support for Palestinians. If there's one thing I've learned about antisemitism during the War on Terror, it's that it sure as hell doesn't uphold Arabs or Muslims as somehow better.

If on October 8th, people could seriously regurgitate War on Terror propaganda that suggests you can bomb Muslims into adopting western values, then it seems extremely suspect to suggest that those same people suddenly switched sides because of some deeper prejudice against Jewish people.

Another set of paranoid explanations focus on the shifting of power in the region, and more globally. Iran and the US have greater interest in cooling relations that have almost reached hot war in recent years. The US has been cozy with Saudi Arabia for many years, putting the Saudi leadership in a very uncomfortable position with regard to regional sentiment regarding Israel. Perhaps China is using "digital fentanyl" (tiktok) to coordinate with Saudia Arabia to shift attention away from some more complex set of machinations. Maybe Iran and the US are using Palestine to make a more lasting stability possible. Such basically nonsensical, geopolitically contradictory explanations inevitably lead back to formal antisemitism. For who is coordinating a complete reversal of official governmental positions but some secret conspiracy?

What remains after these various paranoid explanations have been dealt with is something very simple: the images.

Faster than ever before, images of death, destruction, and despair can circulate globally. In only a month, I have seen at least dozens, if not scores of images of Palestinians in abject desperation. In a time of information warfare, one would think that if the Israeli state, or even regular Israeli citizens had imagery that could mirror what is coming out of Gaza, it would be everywhere. How do I know? Because the same imagery out of Gaza is circulating on every social media platform.

Arguably images of the police murder of Black Americans was one of the most important and sustaining aspects of the Black Lives Matter movement. Even the visible caskets coming home from Vietnam in the 60s and 70s represented a serious threat to US intervention there.

I would put to those people of serious intellectual intention the question in this way: What if the imagery and reportage coming from international observers in Gaza is real?

Might people be believing the evidence of their eyes?

#israel #palestine #i/p conflict #israel/palestine #antisemitism #formal antisemitism #marxism #global politics #islamophobia #zionism #lookingfornoonat2pm

[theculturedmarxist]

It's fun to clown on Musk, but in this case he's actually right.

Whether or not risk of myocarditis is greater as a result of contracting covid is irrelevant to whether or not it is also a risk of taking the vaccine. In fact, knowledge of that risk is vital to having the informed consent necessary to administering that vaccine, especially now when it seems to be the case that there is a compounding risk of myocarditis from repeated covid boosters.

And when the current expectation is that people are going to a) get multiple boosters per year and b) get multiple infections per year, every year, for the foreseeable future, yeah, that's an important consideration.

And I remember that when the vaccines first came out that any and all mention of adverse side effects, including the possibility of myocarditis or adverse effect on menstruation, were called misinformation and anti-vaxxer nonsense or conspiracy theories, all because the Biden administration wanted to get as many people vaccinated as possible as quickly as possible in order to force people to "return to normal."

The most embarrassing revelation of the “Facebook Files” released by House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan yesterday (described in more detail here) involves the news media:

In one damning email, an unnamed Facebook executive wrote to Mark Zuckerberg and Cheryl Sandberg:

We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more Covid-19 vaccine discouraging content.

We see repeatedly in internal communications not only in the email above, but in the Twitter Files, in the exhibits of the Missouri v Biden lawsuit, and even in the Freedom of Information request results beginning to trickle in here at Racket, that the news media has for some time been working in concert with civil society organizations, government, and tech platforms, as part of the censorship apparatus.

In the summer of 2021, the White House and Joe Biden were in the middle of a major factual faceplant. They were not only telling people the Covid-19 vaccine was a sure bet — “You’re not going to get Covid if you have these vaccinations” is how Biden put it — but that those who questioned its efficacy were “killing people.” But the shot didn’t work as advertised. It didn’t prevent contraction or transmission, something Biden himself continued to be wrong about as late as December of that year.

If you go back and give a careful read to corporate media content from that time describing the administration’s war against “disinformation,” you’ll see outlets were themselves not confident the vaccine worked. Take the New York Times effort from July 16th, 2021, “They’re Killing People: Biden Denounces Social Media for Virus Disinformation.” You can see the Times tiptoeing around what they meant, when they used the word “disinformation.” In this and other pieces they used phrases like, “the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation,” “how to track misinformation,” “the prevalence of misinformation,” even “Biden’s forceful statement capped weeks of anger in the White House over the dissemination of vaccine disinformation,” but they repeatedly hesitated to say what the misinformation was.

Any editor will tell you this language is a giveaway. Journalists wrote expansively about “disinformation,” but rarely got into specifics. They knew that they couldn’t state with certainty that the vaccine worked, that there weren’t side effects, etc., yet still denounced people who asked those questions. This is because they agreed with the concept of “malinformation,” i.e. there are things that may be true factually, but which may produce political results considered adverse. “Hestiancy” was one such bugbear. Note the language from the unnamed Facebook executive above, which describes the press lashing out “Covid-19 vaccine discouraging content,” not “disinformation.”

This is total corruption of the news. We’re supposed to be in the business of questioning officials, even if the questions are unpopular. That’s our entire role! If we don’t do that, we serve no purpose, maybe even a negative purpose. Moreover, think of the implications. News outlets wail about “disinformation” when they’re aware the public has tuned them out. When people don’t listen to reporters, it’s usually because they suck. You can do the math, as to why the current crop embraces censorship. A more embarrassing outcome for our business would be hard to imagine.

#coronavirus #covid vaccines #internet censorship #biden administration

[hilli98215]

I have news! Wonderful news!

As many of you know I have been on a journey for the past 5 years to become a certified teacher in the state of Florida. The only thing that was in my way was a math test. The General Knowledge Mathematics exam is one of the hardest ones to pass and has gone through a lot of changes in the past few years. Especially when you take COVID-19 into consideration along with the teacher shortage and the fact less people are going into education.

From what I understand the test was supposed to be 40 questions and 110 minutes. When I took the test, it turned out to be 35 questions for the same amount of time. I used Kahn Academy as my study tool this time instead of paying for one.

Welp, I can now say that I can turn that temporary certification and pay the state 75$ to turn it into a Professional Certification!

I no longer have to take a math test to teach English Language Arts!

#teacher things #personal #teacher update #teaching certification #personal update #i finally passed! #it only took 5 times #florida department of education #education

[mariacallous]

Over the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath, labor shortages have garnered considerable attention, including among public school teachers. Nationwide, the teacher shortage exceeds 55,000 unfilled positions, with nearly five times as many positions held by underqualified candidates. These gaps have been generated, in part, by increased pandemic-era teacher turnover and a 35% enrollment decline in traditional university teacher preparation programs in the decade preceding the pandemic. Meanwhile, interest, prestige, and satisfaction related to the teaching profession have reached 50-year lows.

In response, individual states and the federal government have proposed and enacted various policies to strengthen the teacher workforce. These policies vary widely in scope, encompassing both financial interventions (e.g., teacher pay, loan forgiveness) and non-pecuniary policies around teacher working conditions. While debate over the depths and distribution of the teacher shortage continues, public opinion of enacted and mooted policy approaches varies widely. In this context, improved understanding of public support may inform voter-conscious policymaking, especially in contexts where the effects of policies intended to attract teachers may extend beyond school walls and in instances where policy enactment requires direct voter approval.

To explore public sentiment concerning several teacher recruitment and retention policies, we fielded four questions on the fall 2022 Cooperative Election Study (CES) surveys, which were administered to a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. While many respondents support the proposed strategies, including teacher bonuses, grants, loan forgiveness, and shortened school weeks, significant partisan differences remain evident.

Public opinion in a partisan era

Policies to improve teacher recruitment and retention vary in scope; some specifically target teachers while others focus on broader economic incentives. We posed four survey questions capturing support for the following policies: 1) Expanding the federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH) Grant from $4,000 to $8,000; 2) Accelerating federal loan forgiveness programs (e.g., the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Program, Perkins Loan Cancellation); 3) Enacting permanent four-day school weeks (4DSWs); 4) Distributing one-time teacher bonuses between $1,000 and $5,000.

The first two proposals focus on potential federal policies to recruit and retain teachers (and broader loan relief objectives) while the latter two proposals focus on state and district approaches to teacher labor markets, primarily addressing teacher retention.

Though the two federal policies may not be predicated directly on their public support, both have garnered significant national debate; the doubling of the TEACH grant stalled through President Biden’s American Families Plan proposal while loan forgiveness remains mired in long-term legal proceedings. Conversely, state and local policies often require direct voter support, either through local school board elections or referenda. Four-day school week policies have grown rapidly, primarily in rural locales, though recent evidence indicates largely negative impacts on student academic outcomes, while questions about their effects on parents, families, and communities remain. Teacher grants and bonuses have proliferated through COVID-19 federal relief funds, a revenue source soon due to expire.

While the efficacy of these policies to stabilize teacher labor markets may vary, our focus lies not in assessing their effectiveness but rather in documenting their public support to inform the feasibility of their enactment and sustainability through public buy-in. The pertinent portions of the CES surveys—which we partnered with YouGov to administer to a national stratified sample of approximately 1,000 adults—queried respondents on their support and opposition to these policies, also collecting their demographic characteristics (e.g., race, income, employment status), and political ideology, factors previously linked to policy support. Each question was contextualized for respondents as a potential tool to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

Polarization and partisanship frequently predict policy preferences, eclipsing demographic factors like age, race, and ethnicity, and even material self-interest. Combined with rhetoric from political leaders, partisanship can lead voters to oppose policies from which they stand to benefit. In our increasingly polarized political environment, Americans often view members of the other political party with distrust, which can lead voters to oppose policies based on political endorsements and to impede goals of the other political party. Thus, we expect partisanship to influence respondents’ preferences regarding education policy, particularly on politicized issues.

Contemporary public opinion on teacher shortage policies

On the one hand, each policy proposal garnered at least a plurality of public support. One-time bonuses (63.6%) and grants to teach in high-need schools (59.4%) were most popular; expanded loan forgiveness (47.3%) and permanent 4DSWs (40.7%) received more limited support (see Figure 1). In addition, support for each policy outstripped opposition by between 10 (4DSWs) to as many as 50 percentage points (one-time bonuses); between two and three in 10 respondents remained unsure of their support for each policy.

On the other hand, significant partisan variation underlies this support. Whereas most liberals support enacting each tactic (between 59.1% and 87.6%), only a plurality of conservatives supported one-time bonuses and a majority disapproved of the remaining strategies (see Figure 2). In fact, only slightly more than one in four conservatives indicated support for expanded loan forgiveness (26.0%) and 4DSWs (27.4%).

Only a few additional characteristics beyond partisanship predicted respondent preferences. Racial minority respondents and those holding a bachelor’s degree each indicated greater support for grants to teach in high-need schools. Additional characteristics like family income, gender, employment status, urbanicity, and age rarely, if ever, predicted policy preferences.

Situating our findings

Recently, scholars have explored partisan sorting in education, showing increasing polarization in education-focused topics, including in familiar debates concerning Common Core State Standards, public school quality, and education spending. Our findings showing partisan differences in support for these policy ideas are not entirely surprising, as some topics in education policy have become well-publicized, polarizing hot-button issues (e.g., ESAs, COVID-19 protection measures, book content, instruction discussing sex, gender orientation, and race and ethnicity).

Republican trust in institutions has been declining for several years. A summer 2023 Gallup poll shows a 34-point partisan gap in confidence in public schools, second only to the gap in confidence in the presidency. Affective partisanship and rhetoric from Republican elites also seems to have impacted Republican views of higher education. For example, a Pew Research Center survey illustrates a rapid decline in the number of Republicans who believe higher education has a positive effect “on the way things are going in the country,” declining from more than half in 2015 to only one in three in 2019. We find that these polarized views impact support for policy issues in education that have yet to feature in the so-called culture wars.

Teacher salaries: The annual Education Next Survey explores many hot-button education-focused topics ranging from perceptions of school quality to preferences for the enactment of new policies and practices. In 2022, responses to queries regarding the trajectory of teacher salaries varied widely by partisan ideology, with 70% of Democrats versus 46% of Republicans generally supporting salary increases.

The cost of education: Loan forgiveness and free two- and four-year college: Consistent with our findings, other survey results regarding loan relief showed a significant partisan divide. While 47% of Americans support some federal loan forgiveness, results from the Quinnipiac University Poll indicate a large partisan divide, with 88% of Democrats indicating approval and 81% of Republicans signaling disapproval. Similar partisan differences emerged in EdNext’s questions regarding free two- and four-year higher education, with Democrats indicating much stronger support (84% and 80%) than Republicans (44% and 36%).

Four-day school weeks: Though we found the least support for 4DSW policies (40.7%), the PDK International Poll recently indicated 53% support 4DSWs, up from 25% two decades ago. The PDK poll motivated 4DSWs with district cost savings whereas our question prioritized teacher recruitment and retention, which district leaders now typically cite as a primary objective of the policy and teachers value as a job perk.

The 2023-24 school year and beyond

As students begin the 2023-24 school year, many will return to schools either under-staffed or staffed, in part, by underqualified teachers, making post-pandemic academic recovery more challenging. Though we find a plurality of adults support a range of teacher recruitment and retention policies, even seemingly politically neutral strategies to address teacher shortages may now court a partisan divide similar to other issues in contemporary education policy, one which may feature prominently in upcoming elections. As a result, the feasibility of implementing local policies like 4DSWs and one-time teacher bonuses may hinge on the direction of local partisanship, while federal policies like loan relief may continue to languish with single-party support.

[ianmitchellking]

Example of Crisis Management

The process of identifying, assessing, comprehending, and dealing with a problematic issue is known as crisis management.

External causes, such as a natural disaster, a security breach, or false rumours that harm an organization's brand, can all contribute to a crisis.

Companies should build a comprehensive crisis management plan to respond to these situations, regardless of the reason. This will help to safeguard the company's reputation and personnel.

Johnson & Johnson's approach to the Tylenol issue in 1982 has become a model for how a firm may get it right amid a crisis. Seven people were poisoned after eating cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules, the company's most popular product.

Unlike many other corporations at the time, J&J prioritized consumer safety before financial considerations. The corporation collaborated with police to investigate the mystery and offered a reward for any information leading to the culprits of the crime.

The issue also aided the corporation by increasing public trust in the product. Customers who had questioned the safety of over-the-counter medications began to use them again, and Tylenol's market share surged.

Whether you're waiting for a taxi or a bus, every clock ticktock matters. That's why the smartphone app Uber devised the concept of a 'uber' service to eliminate the pain of queuing and simplify travel.

But, cab firms and government officials have criticized the company's controversial business model, which charges drivers extra for peak-hours rides. It also incentivizes fares to climb at peak demand periods, such as New Year's Eve, which has sparked customer outrage.

Employees have also accused the corporation of sexual harassment. And CEO Travis Kalanick was filmed berating a driver.

United Airlines had a big public relations crisis in April 2017 when video evidence of security officials violently removing a passenger surfaced. During the incident, Dr David Dao, 69, was taken from his seat and bloodied by security agents.

The airline made a series of tweets and remarks in the hours following the tragedy. Instead of apologizing, they reiterated their previous statement, calling the passenger "disruptive and confrontational." This is a textbook case of poor crisis management.

P&G has a long history of adapting to weather interruptions by utilizing its IWS culture. It was critical in the company's successful navigation of COVID-19, which affected every plant worldwide.

In Egypt, for example, the corporation had to make decisions about how to keep its operations operational and its employees safe while coping with political unrest and violence.

The company's reaction was textbook crisis management. It acted fast and responsibly, gaining widespread support through lighter humour.

When Procter & Gamble faced a weird internet challenge in which teens filmed themselves eating Tide Pods, they knew they had to act immediately to defend their brand. They also ensured that they were completely honest about the facts and not at fault. This was a crucial lesson for other businesses since realizing that unanticipated disasters might occur without your company's fault is essential.

[youknows-design]

Freelancing and making money online has become a trend and a necessity that ignites the interest of each and everyone. Since the COVID-19 pandemic so many jobs are lost due to quarantine and the companies being unable to provide salaries for their employees. The industrial sector in particular has lost so much money since they need a physical work force to operate the processes, hence the workers couldn’t go to their daily work due to the quarantine during COVID days so they lost their jobs and that led to them suffering a lot on the financial side. On the other hand many social media influencers made so much money during the pandemic days. Online freelancers as well have generated so much income even more than usual since many companies and organizations have shifted their work online and so their need for freelancers has increased a lot.

In this article I will briefly walk you through Fiverr freelancing and how to gain a steady income working online, Plus answer a couple of the common questions regarding this freelancing platform.

You may have heard of freelancing on Fiverr and had a couple of questions on mind like:

What is Fiverr?

How freelancing on Fiverr works

What is a Fiverr Gig?

Where to share Fiverr Gigs for successful freelancing?

How Fiverr payment works?

What Is Fiverr?!

Fiverr is an online freelancing platform that showcases the freelancers skills and allows buyers to hire them to do certain jobs then get paid for them. It’s a great platform that’s known for its beginner friendliness and ease of use. Jobs postings or listings are called Gigs and you are allowed to post up to 9 Gigs for an account. It’s totally free to join and no fees are required to start accepting jobs.

Fiverr also has an e-learning platform called Learn From Fiverr which offers online courses for freelancers to sharpen their skills so that they can offer a high-end work and upgrade their freelancing career. Some courses are also for Freelancing beginners who feel they need some more knowledge about a certain skill that they feel their grasp of it doesn’t yet qualify them to professionally provide services on the platform. Learn From Fiverr pricing is actually great and in my humble opinion they offer a great value for the buck. All the courses are taught by industry experts who are globally known and revered.

How Freelancing On Fiverr Works?!

It’s pretty straight forward to accept a job offer from a customer. The client makes an order of your gig and walks you through the details of his desired end result and how he imagines the final look of it. When the order starts a timer will start indicating the remaining days for you to finish the freelancing job. That will be the time you set in your account for finishing such jobs. You take what he or she wants into consideration and start implementing on that basis. After you finish the job and deliver it to the client the money will be deposited in your fiverr account which you can later withdraw to your PayPal or to your bank account.

Where To Share Fiverr Gigs For Successful Freelancing?

Creating a Gig on the platform is awesome!. Now you need to display your gig in front of potential buyers to get orders and actually make money freelancing. Actually promoting your gig is as important as creating it. 

There are a couple of ways to do that:

Tell it to people virally: like your friends and family members and send them your links to your gigs. You can also ask them to tell their friends that if they need your services. Then go to this link or contact your and then you can start telling them about it and fortunately convert them into buying customers.

Sharing it on social media: There are literally Billions of active users on Facebook alone, that means a lot of traffic to harness and use to promote your gigs. Do a research on Facebook and join the freelancing groups and the specific groups that promote Fiverr gigs. Don’t just post your links but rather contribute in the community and be active by commenting and supporting other freelancers in each and every group, do that and the other members will find you credible and worthy of their trust and can do business with you. You can do the same process on twitter and every social media platform you use.

Use Quora.com : Quora is the world’s leading Q&A platform where people go to ask questions and get answers about everything including freelancing. The main benefit of Quora for you is that It’s answers get indexed and showed in Google search results!. Boy that’s a great potential to get your freelancing skills in front of people who are asking about it at the moment. Start answering questions in your niche and build credibility and trust on the platform. Since you will be banned by admins for posting links, try posting your links once every five answers. Do so and your account stays healthy and the admins don’t ban you and block you forever.

Post them on your portfolio: Having a website is really important for freelancers!. It’s their own space where they show their freelancing skills and talents to the world in a shiny packaging. Create your own website and showcase your work so that people can see your gigs and order them. Or even better to give them the option to hire you directly from your own portfolio website.

Paid Ads: And that’s really quick to display your gigs in front of the world. Of course it needs a budget but the results are really fast since it laser-targets the desired audience and has a high potential to convert into paying clients. Always ask a pro to setup your ad campaign the right way. If you have the knowledge then do it yourself.

How Fiverr Payment Works As A Freelancing Business?

There are a couple of methods freelancers are getting paid with and you can only use one of them actively in your account. Once your order is marked complete you will wait for a 14-day safety clearance period. If you are a top rated seller then the safety clearance period will be 7 days. For studios it depends on level status or classification (I will talk about sellers level in a separate freelancing post).

Payments Methods:

PayPal.

Local Bank Transfer.

Fiverr Revenue Card (Available Globally except for India and Russia).

Direct Deposit (Available only in the United States).

That was a brief talk about Fiverr freelancing and will be talking in details about tiny details. It’s a huge freelancing platform and needs a couple of articles. Remember to take your freelancing career seriously since it can get you to your financial freedom faster.

I wish you all the best in your freelancing career.

For more similar posts feel free to check my blog.

#make money online #freelancing #work from home #entrepreneurship

[zpresrun2024]

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Originally  Published on March 15, 2020 and Updated on December 30, 2020

Mark Twain was right (or was it Will Rogers?) !

I’ve never enjoyed studying infectious diseases so a career in epidemiology seemed out of the question for me in active practice. That’s a shame because I do enjoy analyzing trends and how they are influenced from within and without. Then comes CoViD–19 and it seems that everyone with a microphone wants to stir people into a panic.

Fake Statistics abound – the people included in the sample and compared with whatever it is in question – is why so many seemingly scholarly opinions are out there with such a wide range of “conclusive” findings. One of the concerns in the current pandemic is that there is no immunity in the human community so more people will get sick if exposed to the virus. It’s pretty widely known to exist, though the seasonal flu vaccine, while not conferring 100% immunity will at least lessen symptoms and make the flu less dangerous to those most likely to suffer great harm if infected.

For those who love the math, infectious diseases present a left weighted bell curve when first discovered. All that fancy phrase means is that at the start the spread is rapid because it hasn't been recognized that a new disease is at work so the exposure and infection rates climb quickly. Once recognized and people begin to react to this new threat to their health, diseases tend to slowly fade off into a lull. Sometimes this is the last we hear of the disease, sometimes it’s a seasonal change in the organism’s ability to move from person to person.

You may remember when people were terrified of MRSA. Every human being on the planet has the staph aureus organism on their skin from the time they leave the hospital after being born (or immediately after being born if not in a hospital). Of those a certain number have the mutated resistant staph. Of those exposed, very few will actually suffer an infection. Of those, very few will suffer spread of the disease within themselves. Of those, very few will die. This is precisely the same mechanism as Plague, Spanish flu, H1N1, pneumonia, the common cold, and every other infectious disease.

Some pundits have mentioned seasonal flu and it's a good place to start; 350,000,000 people in the US, 80% exposed to flu (or “tested positive” on a nasal swab) = 280,000,000; 10% of those exposed actually get the flu - 28,000,000,; 0.1% - 0.2% of those who get the flu die = 28,000 - 56,000. Any change in any or all of those variables will change the outcome.

The first statistical analyses of this novel virus were trending toward about a 3% mortality rate. The mortality rate in the United States as of about 8:00pm EDT on 14MAR2020 is about 2% (2,055 sick folks and 59 dead = about 2%). This will very likely change and decrease as this virus runs its course, but this is the most current information available at the moment. Most of the infectious disease physicians I have read or spoken with think that once all the actual disease affected folks (those who actually get this bug) are finally accounted for when this is over, will likely end up somewhere between 0.5% and 1%. This high rate versus seasonal flu is directly linked to the lack of a vaccine that helps reduce severity of a disease even if it doesn't prevent getting the disease.

Still; remember, that with the same rate I used for seasonal flu that's 350,000,000 people in the US, 80% exposed to CoViD–19 (or “tested positive” on a nasal swab) = 280,000,000; 20% of those exposed actually get the disease - 56,000,000,; 0.5% of those who get the disease die = 280,000 or 2% of those who get the disease die = 1,120,000. Not exactly your seasonal flu. Not the apocalypse, either.

There are a lot of other considerations – like more people actually getting the disease since there isn't a vaccine yet, underlying patient vulnerability due to disease or poor immune response, but this is really pretty straightforward math.

Remember, though, that the sickest among us are the ones most likely to suffer the most. For example I'm over 60 with mild emphysema and asthma and a 90 pack year history of tobacco abuse. I still go to work as a nurse every day and practice infection control techniques the way I learned in nursing school and additional continuing education. If I screw up I am at a much greater risk of death than my 28 year old daughter who runs in ultra–marathons and works in a mother–baby unit at a NC hospital. Still, my daughter knows to practice the infection control all of us learned as children: wash your hands regularly, don’t sneeze or cough without covering your mouth and nose, wash your hands after sneezing or coughing, don’t breathe in other peoples’ faces and don’t let them breathe in yours. Any caregiver or relative could transmit any contagious disease to anyone else just by not being generally cautious.

I have watched hurricane responses since the early 1960s in S Florida where I grew up and they did a much better job back then. I was Hurricane Control NCO at Eglin Air Force Base in 1975 when we re-wrote the hurricane operation plan. The disaster management people on that base were phenomenal. I wish they were in charge of the responses to hurricanes Andrew, Katrina, Maria, and others, as well as terror attacks and this bloody virus. Those folks showed me the benefit of teamwork and how to make the best use of every resource available.

A healthy respect for the damage this virus can do will help far more than panic or fear. Our Federal government hasn't got the best record in responding to significant problems over the last 40 years or so. We can do better.

#pandemic #government #donald trump #tony fauci