Want To Be Nice? Don't Stay Silent

Also: Why We're Terrible At Assessing Risk ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  [View in Browser]( | [Donate [WBUR]]( [WBUR](  [WBUR]( May 2, 2021 Dear Cog reader, I have a text thread with two dear friends – we cover everything, really, but also news about the pandemic. Early on in this coronavirus-life, it also included our male significant others, but we quickly dispatched with that and kept it just us girls. My friends are smart – and far better at math than I. Over the last year, we’ve traded texts about [“poop” data]( (it’s really MWRA’s wastewater COVID-19 tracking), the “[U Curve]( (I am, apparently, in my “least happy” years right now) and, most recently, vaccines. According to the White House’s COVID response team, [100 million Americans]( are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and over 35% of Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated. We’re also starting to see data about how well vaccinations protect against infection. According to data gathered by the [CDC]( .00008% of vaccinated people report getting infected with COVID after their shots. That's a pretty small number. For perspective: your lifetime odds of dying in a car crash is a little less than 1%. So, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, as Yogi Berra once said, but we’re on our way. Case in point: - Kids are returning to in-person learning, though [Joanna Weiss]( isn’t so sure we should leave all pandemic-era schooling behind. - People in Massachusetts are no longer required to wear a mask outside (when it’s possible to keep a safe distance, of course). In light of this news, [Anita Diamant]( been reflecting on her mask collection. - Humans are awful at assessing risk, especially when it comes to risks that are frightening but extremely unlikely, such as shark bites, plane crashes and blood clots. [Abraar Karan]( and two of his colleagues dive into that phenomenon in regards to the J&J vaccine – the pausing of which, they say, has cost lives unnecessarily. Thanks, as always, for reading and sharing. -- Cloe Axelson Cognoscenti editor newsletters@wbur.org Must Reads url[Why We're Terrible At Weighing The Risks Of The J&J Vaccine]( Skipping medical treatments or preventions that offer great benefits for minimal risks is always a costly error, write Abraar Karan, Ingrid Katz and Richard Zeckhauser. [Read more](.   #%23%23[Twitter](  #%23%23[Facebook](    [School's Back! Now Can We Please Keep Some Lessons From Hybrid Learning?]( A year ago, we were handed an unexpected experiment in crisis-era education, writes Joanna Weiss. Will we have learned anything from it, in the end? [Read more](. [Want To Be Nice? Don't Stay Silent]( Shalene Gupta grew up in Minnesota, the paradise of small talk and steering away from the inflammatory. After the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, she writes, I’m learning when your trust has been broken, other people’s silence isn’t enough. [Read more](.  Support the news [My Year In Masks]( Early on in the pandemic, covering your nose and mouth felt like an emergency. Now, as the end of mask-life dawns, Anita Diamant wonders what we'll remember from this long, strange year. [Read more](. [Biden's Speech Made Progressives Happy. But There's More Work To Do]( To hear the president acknowledge science, exhibit compassion and aspire to inclusion was a refreshing contrast to the divisive bile spewed by the prior occupant of the White House, writes Jesse Mermell. [Read more](. [Don't Get Caught Up In 'Infrastructure' Semantics: Biden's Plans Are Essential Investments]( The definition of “infrastructure” has always evolved with technology, writes Rich Barlow. Caesar Augustus constructed public works, but he couldn’t build a railroad like Lincoln, who couldn’t expand the electric grid like FDR, who couldn’t thread the country with broadband, as Biden proposes. [Read more](. What We're Reading When I think of all the people whose family members and friends are dying right outside hospitals, the number of bodies growing such that the crematoriums don’t have enough room, I realize how lucky I am to have been able to say goodbye to my mother. (The Lily, "[I’m Left With Survivor’s Guilt As I Watch India Burn]( "For this one week, there would be no internet. No Instagram Lives, no Netflix and chill, no gaming streams on Twitch. It is a self-care break, and part of the deal is that you have to unplug. In this scenario, we’d all be vaccinated and the weather would be perfect. Go outside and frolic!" (The New York Times, "[The Case for a National One-Week Vacation]( "By issuing recommendations that are simultaneously too timid and too complicated, the CDC is repeating a mistake that’s hounded America’s pandemic response. The new guidelines are rigid and binary, and aren’t accompanied by explanations or a link to an accessible version of the underlying science, which would empower people to both understand them better and figure things out for themselves." (The Atlantic, "[The CDC Is Still Repeating Its Mistakes]( “ The relaxation of the mask mandate feels like its own vindication of our collective effort – at least it does here in Massachusetts. — Anita Diamant, "[My Year In Masks]( ICYMI ['Late, But Not Too Late': What Biden's Recognition Of The Armenian Genocide Means To My Family]( Armenians' pain has been deepened by a lifetime of waiting in vain for the world to officially acknowledge what happened to them was more than a series of massacres, writes John Christie. It was a genocide: the killing of a people.      If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📨 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( [WBUR]( [WBUR]  [WBUR]( [95289b97-66e8-43d4-a174-3bc3520a79a9.png]( [Instagram](  [Twitter]( [Facebook]( Want to change how you receive these emails? [Stop getting this newsletter by updating your preferences.]( I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters.]( Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? [Click here.]( Copyright © 2021 WBUR-FM, All rights reserved. You signed up for this newsletter at wbur.org. 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