User:JimEagle23/Mass psychogenic illness

Covid-19 and Mass Hysteria/Mass Psychogenic Illness.
"Men . . . go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

There have been many examples of mass hysteria/mass psychogenic illness throughout history but there is one instance of mass psychogenic illness that is worth considering. One of the most recent examples of mass psychogenic illness/mass hysteria is that surrounding Covid-19. Covid-19 is of course a real virus that has cost many people around the world their lives. There are many who due to their health circumstances are not at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. This has not stopped people who are not at risk from succumbing to mass psychogenic illness/mass hysteria.

The history of mass hysteria/mass psychogenic illness goes back centuries and there are many modern examples. Many of the historical examples of mass psychogenic illness as well as the more recent ones involve either an actual illness or a fictional one. When it comes to illness simply the idea that you might become ill can actually lead to physical symptoms due to the nocebo effect. This translates to a large number of people feeling like they are sick due to this illness but not actually having the same risk level as those truly suffering from the disease. For example the following table from the CDC shows the survival rates for Covid-19 based on age groups. The point being that most relatively healthy individuals have little risk of dying from Covid-19.

Covid-19 mass hysteria has exhibited itself in a number of ways. One example of this is Lockdowns in which everyone including healthy people were told to stay in their homes. The problem is that we have never eradicated a disease in this way and there are no new scientific tools that would make this possible. The only disease that has been truly eradicated is smallpox and this took decades to accomplish These lockdowns have provided the necessary ingredients for mass psychogenic illness/mass hysteria. In fact one survey conducted stated that 40.9% of the participants reported at least one negative mental health condition while 10.7% said that they had considered suicide in the last 30 days. There is also some anecdotal evidence that shows the mass hysteria/mass psychogenic Illness surrounding Covid-19. This includes the hoarding of toilet paper, people wearing masks in their cars by themselves, and people afraid to leave their house even for a walk. All of this went on despite the fact that as mentioned in the table above most people had a very low chance of dying from Covid-19. Of course there were people who due to age and or health factors needed to mask, social distance, and quarantine to some extent until they were able to get a vaccine. For the majority of people this was not the case. There are of course many ways in which the public can fight against mass hysteria. These include activities such as exercise, quality sleep, maintaining strong connections with others, and having a balanced diet. Governments around the world forced their citizens to mask and isolate themselves making these activities difficult. This only created additional anxiety and psychological strain as was shown by the above survey.

And what of the news coverage? It was almost overwhelmingly negative. To put this in perspective news of increasing Covid-19 cases outnumbered those of declining cases by a factor of 5.5 even in times when cases were declining. There was also the death count that was being displayed on CNN and other news agencies daily. Instead of being informative and helpful it only served to increase mass hysteria amongst large segments of the public. Individuals and even news agencies that sought to offer up another perspective on our response Covid-19 were silenced and taken off the air completely. A prime example of this is the Great Barrington Declaration. This was a document written by many prominent epidemiologists and other scientists in similar fields. Their main point of contention was that it was unnecessary to lock down those individuals who were not vulnerable to the grave effects of Covid-19. Dr. Francis Collins the head of the NIH felt, felt the authors of the GBD were “fringe epidemiologists” and suggested “there needs to be a quick and devastating published take down of its premises”. If we will allow open and decentralized competition for solutions then this will go a long way in mitigating the effects of the mass psychogenic illness/mass hysteria surrounding covid 19. Covid-19 has already done a great deal of physical damage so let's do what is necessary to stop the mental damage that is still being caused by the mass hysteria surrounding Covid-19.