Why Shame Is A Bad Public Health Tool — Especially In A Pandemic

Short Wave

NPR

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4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2020

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

So much of dealing with the pandemic is about how each of us behaves in public. And it's easy to get mad when we see people not following public health guidelines, especially when it looks like they're having fun.

But Julia Marcus of Harvard Medical School says there are pitfalls to focusing only on what we can see, and more empathetic ways to create new social norms.

Julia's written about that for The Atlantic. Here's some of her recent work.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.6	Believe me, I get it.
0:07.7	I'm frustrated and angry too.
0:10.4	After all, it's been four months of this.
0:13.2	We know the right things to do.
0:16.1	And when you see someone not wearing a mask or groups of people hanging out close together,
0:21.8	it's easy to get mad.
0:24.2	Even if, in all fairness, you've been that person once or twice.
0:28.8	Yay!
0:30.1	Open defiance at this casserole Colorado restaurant, large crowds, no social distancing.
0:35.7	And there's some news coverage right now that caters to this anger.
0:39.8	You know what I'm talking about.
0:41.4	Many Americans are out and about on this Memorial Day visiting newly reopened businesses.
0:46.4	Seems from the unofficial kickoff to the summer, showing many Americans not practicing
0:50.9	social distancing measures.
0:52.2	I'm telling you to wear a mask.
0:54.4	Wear a damn mask.
0:56.2	Like this kind of thing, anger, public shaming, the urge to yell at people who aren't doing
1:01.5	the right things, that can be precisely the opposite of productive.
1:07.2	Yeah, as an HIV researcher, I've been watching all of this unfolds through that lens.
1:14.6	Julia Marcus is an epidemiologist and professor at the Harvard Medical School.
1:19.0	She studies HIV prevention.
	...

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