How the public presentation of the COVID-19 data was used to amplify fear and compliance..
EmpowerU Studio at Frame USA
225 Northland Blvd
Cincinnati Ohio 45246
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
From the official start of the pandemic in Ohio, data has been cited heavily by the DeWine administration, local authorities and other institutions to justify a plethora of restrictions and mandates. The authorities used a series of metrics, particularly the colorful Ohio Public Health Advisory System (aka “The Map of Fear”), in order to influence the public’s perception of the severity of COVID in Ohio.
But what was the reality? How did the presentation of the data distort the public’s perceptions of risk and influence their willingness to submit to unheard of interventions in their daily lives? Most importantly, how can we look at the data presented to us with a critical eye in order to make the best decisions for ourselves and our families in the future.
Kathryn Huwig attended Case Western Reserve University and Stanford University, double majoring in Planetary Geology and Evolutionary Biology. Her evolutionary biology degree focused mainly on different aspects of human evolution, including a graduate course focused solely on the epidemiology and evolution of human diseases. The degree was also heavily focused on the history and philosophy of science, or how we know what we know, how science succeeds and where it fails.
During the pandemic, she watched all of Gov. DeWine’s and ODH’s press conferences while dissecting the Ohio COVID data, showing how the data was being manipulated to create a false narrative of fear while teaching others how to analyze and understand their own local data, empowering them to approach their local institutions with confidence. She shared her common sense analyses in her Facebook groups, including Understanding Ohio COVID-19 Data (now censored) and Beyond the Data.