Ebola Does Not Require an "Ebola Czar," Nor Calling Up the National Guard

Lasrick writes: David Ropeik explores risk-perception psychology and Ebola in the U.S. "[O]fficials are up against the inherently emotional and instinctive nature of risk-perception psychology. Pioneering research on this subject by Paul Slovic, Baruch Fischhoff, and others, vast research on human cognition by Daniel Kahneman and colleagues, and research on the brain's fear response by neuroscientists Joseph LeDoux, Elizabeth Phelps, and others, all make abundantly clear that the perception of risk is not simply a matter of the facts, but more a matter of how those facts feel. ... People worry more about risks that are new and unfamiliar. People worry more about risks that cause greater pain and suffering. People worry more about threats against which we feel powerless, like a disease for which there is no vaccine and which has a high fatality rate if you get it. And people worry more about threats the more available they are to their consciousness—that is, the more aware people are of them."

Comments

Re:"Fear"

[Anonymous Coward]

sexconker - October 2014:

I'd love to see you make that same post 10 days from now when the number of confirmed cases in the US skyrockets.

sexconker is a useless sack of shit.

Re:Politics

[cold fjord]

I see you're using "special" terminology in which "fraud" more or less has the meaning of payments for care to the elderly. In that case it has been a "marvelous success" which in ordinary language is commonly known as a minor disaster. But chin up, worse is yet to come.

After One Year, Obamacare’s Biggest Achievement: Hiding Its Cost

And a minor clarification is needed, Obamacare was written by Progressive lobbyists and Democrats, not think tanks on the right. Even if there are some similarities there are also substantial and important differences.

But now I'm curious, are you truly so uncurious that it never crossed your mind to investigate why think tanks on the right abandoned those policies, why they decided they were in fact bad ideas?

Also, you can thank the Democratic party in general, and Ted Kennedy in particular, for blocking one or more generally similar schemes in the past. The Democrats did the right thing for the wrong reason then. Now they did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and we'll all be paying.