The next main meeting of the Middle Way Network will be on Zoom at 7pm UK time on Sun 28th Feb 2021. In this, the second of our meetings on the Middle Way in moral and political issues, Hannah Bailey-Thomas, who is a doctor working in the British National Health Service and a member of the Middle Way Society, will give a talk on applying the Middle Way to public health in the context of the current Covid 19 pandemic.
Hannah will talk about general perception of personal and social risk and how poor we tend to be at it, and the spectrum of ‘evidence based’—’common sense’ — ‘herd mentality/feelings as facts’. She’ll also then apply this to the issues of mask wearing, lockdown adherence, vaccine uptake, the effects of social media and rule fatigue in the pandemic, with the absolutizations she thinks can be avoided in these areas.
There’ll be a short talk on this topic, followed by questions, then discussion in regionalised breakout groups, and a plenary session at the end. If you’re interested in joining us but are not already part of the Network, please see the general Network page to sign up. All the videos of previous Network stimulus talks are now indexed on this page. If you would like catch up more with basic aspects of the Middle Way approach, we are also holding a reading group (next on 7th March) which will do this – please contact Jim (at) middlewaysociety.org if you want to join this.
Suggested reflection questions
- Where do you tend to sit in the evidence based/common sense/herd mentality/feelings and facts spectrum and what factors tend to shift that for you?
- What is your response when challenged with the idea that no human being individually is good at assessing risk? If this is the case how can we address this?
- What specific absolutisations have you found yourself indulging in during the pandemic? What has driven that for you?
Suggested further listening
Podcast interview with Sir Harry Burns, former Chief Medical Officer for Scotland (this is pre-Covid, but is about wider public health issues)