Paternalism Backfires

“Those dying of the disease are predominantly older Canadians. The median age of people killed by COVID-19 is around 84. . . . About 25 per cent of the pandemic deaths in Quebec have been among people between the ages of 60 and 79, with 42 per cent between the ages of 80 and 89 and 31 per cent over the age of 90.”—CBC

I understand why these facts are being downplayed significantly: namely, to combat a perceived callousness on the part of the young and healthy (“It won’t get us”). But I wonder how long this kind of paternalism can go on for. Sooner or later, they’re going to realize that we’re lying to them.

It happened with weed (“If you smoke a joint today, you’ll be a homeless junkie by the end of the month”), and it happened with H.I.V., when public health officials deliberately exaggerated the risk to heterosexual teenagers, and downplayed the extent to which the disease was disproportionately hurting particular demographics.

In both instances, this kind of father-knows-best lying led to backlashes that involved a great deal of risky behavior (“If they’re lying to us about this, they must be lying about everything. So I can smoke crack and have unprotected sex with impunity”). Strategic lying almost always backfires. What’s more, it erodes trust in experts, government, and science.

Tristan, our first son, was born in Baltimore in 2002. During the pregnancy, our doctor told my wife to refrain from drinking altogether. If you do, your kid might end up with birth defects. Indie, our second son, was born a year later, in 2003, here in Montréal. During that pregnancy, our Québécois doctor said that having a glass of wine every day with dinner was perfectly safe. “Has the science changed?”—I asked. “Because just a year ago we were told something else in the States.”

Our doctor smiled and told us that the American doctors knew that a glass of wine a day was harmless. They were lying to their patients strategically because they figured that if you tell women to abstain completely, they’ll cheat and have one. If you tell them one glass is fine, they’ll cheat and have two. This kind of condescending bullshit infuriates me! Stop treating your fellow citizens like children, guys. We can handle the truth.