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Consider This from NPR

Why Our Brains Struggle To Make Sense Of COVID-19 Risks

Consider This from NPR

NPR

Society & Culture, Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.26.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 November 2020

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Millions of Americans traveled for Thanksgiving despite pleas not to do so from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force says if you're one of them, assume you're infected, get tested and do not go near your friends or family members without a mask on.

Because COVID-19 is a largely invisible threat, our brains struggle to comprehend it as dangerous. Dr. Gaurav Suri, a neuroscientist at San Francisco State University, explains how habits can help make the risks of the virus less abstract.

Emergency room doctor Leana Wen discusses why it's tempting to make unsafe tradeoffs in day-to-day activities and how to better "budget" our risks.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

It's always hard coming back to reality after a holiday weekend, but that reality is here.

0:06.2

We expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December,

0:12.2

that we might see a surge superimposed upon that surge that we're already in.

0:17.8

The experts hit up the Sunday news talk shows that's Dr. Anthony Fauci on NBC's Meet the Press.

0:23.7

Public health officials had begged us not to travel, not to gather with extended family for

0:28.7

Thanksgiving. So now here was Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House

0:33.2

Coronavirus Task Force on CBS, with so great advice for those who did.

0:38.6

So if you're young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to ten days later,

0:44.2

but you need to assume that you're infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others

0:49.6

without a mask. Throughout this pandemic, so much of the work of controlling the spread has been left

0:55.6

in the hands of individuals. Regular people ask to make the right decisions for themselves

1:00.7

and the broader good. To resist the temptation to go visit grandma or throw a small birthday party

1:06.7

or pull down that mask when it gets uncomfortable. If your governor or your mayor

1:12.2

isn't doing the policies that we know are critical, masking, physical distancing,

1:18.5

avoiding bars, avoiding crowded indoor areas, if those restrictions don't exist in your state,

1:24.8

you need to take it upon yourself. Consider this tens of thousands of lives

1:32.4

depend on how much Americans respect the real danger of coronavirus. But to understand a largely

1:38.5

invisible threat, we have to outsmart our own brains. From NPR, I'm Adi Cornish. It's Monday,

1:45.2

November 30th. Since the 1980s, hip hop and America's prisons have grown side by side.

1:58.4

And we're going to investigate this connection to see how it lifts us up and holds us down.

2:02.8

Hip hop is talking about what we live, trying to live the American dream,

2:07.6

felon at the American dream. I'm Sydney Mellon. I'm Rodney Carmichael. Listen now to the louder

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