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Comment by cypherg | Hacker News Reader

Well, at least they explain everything wrong in the very first line of the article:

"A construction site safety manager in Queens said that as a Black man, he was more worried about the prospect of being stopped by the police than he was about getting Covid-19."

Humans are truly horrible at assessing risk. So many cognitive biases, where do you even start.

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You could make the argument that he may have had first-hand experience with police harassment, and not with the effects of covid-19. This may be a cognitive bias but the same issue presents with some vaccine avoiders - no experience with the risks (ie not knowing someone who has had covid-19)

Mmm, not sure about the numbers here. If you're a young, healthy person, Covid is not particularly dangerous. If you're a young, healthy, inner-city black man, police are actually very dangerous. Seems to me very plausible that the chances of dying in a police stop are higher than dying of covid for some demographics.

If you're a young, healthy person, Covid is not particularly dangerous. If you're a young, healthy, inner-city black man, police are actually very dangerous.

The point is - it's a non-sequitur, regardless. It's like saying: "As a member of group X, I'm more worried about the prospect of being stopped by the police than I am about getting killed or maimed in a car wreck. Therefore, I don't wear a seatbelt."

Sure, but it might change how motivated you are to address threats that don't meet your everyday minima. Nobody worries about being eaten by a bear in manhattan because it's not very likely - you're much more likely to get hit by a car, or eaten by your neighbor even. So you see people preparing against those threats, and not devoting any time to the bears-in-manhattan threat vector. This seems rational to me.

So you see people preparing against those threats, and not devoting any time to the bears-in-manhattan threat vector.

Except Covid risk - especially if you work in crowded spaces, ride the subway, or go to bars and clubs - is much, much greater than from bears in the park.

Start with the media.

Media in 2020: "Racism is a public health emergency, so go ahead and have your 2020 National BLM Super Spreader Event"

Media in 2021: "Black people are more concerned about racism than COVID."

No one could have predicted this.

But that risk assessment is right. Why would a black guy worry about COVID, some 1/10000 risk? They face a higher chance of getting arrested for a crime they didn’t commit, a higher chance of getting murdered, and a much higher chance of getting laid.

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