Persuasion, Politics, and Covid-19

John Legend in Walgreens’ commercial is an excellent example of “appeal to authority,” one of the most convincing types of persuasion, along with emotion. Here in the United States, lines awaiting vaccines have dwindled and vaccines are going unused. Skepticism is as great as the political divide. Meanwhile, much of the world still needs vaccines. And this nebulous in-between time we’ve been through in the past 18 months is the result of a series of unknowns, including what happened in China and where the pandemic, including vaccine discoveries, will lead. In the US, for example, the CDC has stopped investigating Covid outbreaks in vaccinated groups and dropped mandatory mask-wearing, which is confusing all and helps convince unvaccinated that they've made the right choice, in spite of persuasive commercials. CDC Stops Investigating Covid Breakouts