After reading “Methods of Gathering Scientific Evidence” by Stern and Kalof I could not help but think of the current situation that the world is in, and what method of gathering evidence would be best. I think that the coronavirus is so unpredictable and changing day by day because nobody really knows much about the virus itself, in what conditions it can/ cannot survive in, and nobody knows how to cure it. This is causing general panic which is not adding to this already stressful situation. I think that it is clear that the naturalistic observation method would not necessarily work in this situation because nobody was observing at the exact moment when the coronavirus started, but it will be interesting to hear the actual accounts of what it is like to have it and to study it. It is very strange to think about how many retrospective case studies there will be on this situation after this pandemic is over. I also think that there are many different variations of the sample studies going on as the world and nation try to see what the mortality rates are and how many people actually have the virus. I think that this reading was very interesting especially because it was so easy to relate to what we are all experiencing currently.
I also think that the situation that the world is in with the coronavirus can be applied to the second reading by Von Ruden and vanVugt especially in regard to cultural lags. There are so many cultural lags that we experience in society that we have to deal with, and I think that they are ever more apparent now that we are seeing that we are not equipped for a virus like COVID-19. I think that this article’s discussion of leadership also brings to light the issues that we may have with who is leading the world currently and what this pandemic will do to the upcoming election. I think that it will be very interesting to see what people will look for in a leader in the 2020 election. I find that it is very interesting how this pandemic is becoming political in a sense, Democrats saying that Trump did not do enough in the beginning, and Trump saying that the “liberal” media is blowing the coronavirus out of proportions. I think that this such an unprecedented event that will have a definite impact on the way that our nation and the world is run in the future.
I definitely agree that the pandemic going on right now will create drastic changes in our political system. There are many arguing that this pandemic is bringing awareness to the issues in our medical and institutional systems. Seeing leaders who claimed there was no threat from the virus sell their stocks that they would later benefit from really what people will do during a crisis. I believe this will change how people view certain leaders and there will most likely be a huge voter turnout this year because of it.
I think that this crisis is definitely showing how there was even a cultural lag in the development of responses to the virus. There was a lag between how bad the virus was and how bad people thought it was, which is part of the reason the situation is as dire as it is now.