Jan 12, 2021 15:14
Here come the just-so stories. I ran into one some weeks ago
that reminded me of the category. Most people think of Just-So
stories as fables about animals, as Kipling wrote, especially
fables about animal origins; e.g., how the leopard got his
spots.
But that's mostly because of Kipling. Wiktionary's definition of
a just-so story is "a story that cannot be proven or disproven,
used as an explanation of a current state of affairs." In most
cases that's true. In broader and more modern terms, a just-so
story is an urban legend with a moral admonishing people to obey
some stated principle or face the (scary) consequences. You've all
probably seen your share, though you probably didn't think of them
as "just-so stories." Still, that's what they are.
Here's the story I heard: A woman described having some unstated
number of people over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was held outside,
in Arizona. Some (unstated number) wore masks. The 13 others did
not. The people who wore masks did not catch SARS-CoV-2. All the
rest did.
I assume she thought she was doing a public service by
frightening people into wearing masks all the time, everywhere. I
don't think she was ready for the response she got: People called
her a fake, a yarn-spinner...a liar. The reason is fairly simple:
The story is too pat. All the people who refused
to wear masks got sick. None of the people who did wear
masks got sick. And this was during a dinner held outdoors.
Is this possible? Of course. Is it likely? No, if you know
anything at all about COVID-19. Was the dinner indoors? No. Were
the dinner guests all older people? No. (The older people wore
masks.) Young people may test positive for the virus, but they
rarely show symptoms and almost never become seriously ill. And
with even the slightest breeze, exhaled viruses are dispersed in
seconds.
Yet, it was...just so. Medical privacy laws make such stories
conveniently unverifiable.
I don't want to pile on her too hard here, and thus won't post a
link. (I also don't want to give her any more exposure than she's
already gotten.) The point I'm making is that urban legends are
still very much with us, and unverifiable stories should be treated
as such: useless at best and misleading at worst. The best way to
fight urban legends is not to spread them. The second-best way is
to (politely) state in the comments (if there is a comments
section) that the story is an urban legend and not be trusted. The
story may well have been "just so" in the teller's imagination. In
the real world, well...probably not.
urban legends,
health