SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- “Most of the public was stuck at home and wasn’t experiencing the pandemic except in this virtual way,” said Martha Lincoln, a medical anthropologist at San Francisco State University.
Culturally, Americans may have been poorly prepared to face the demands of a pandemic, Lincoln said. That was especially true under the authority of former President Donald Trump, whose management of the pandemic at times leaned on denial and neglect. But even in the liberal Bay Area, “magical thinking” about the pandemic’s threat has been problematic.
“The culture of denialism and rugged individualism in the United States is really, really entrenched,” Lincoln said. “And that makes people optimistic in ways that sometimes are not very realistic.”