A View from Behind the Microphone During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned

Based on experience as a physician providing audio, video, and print media in the Catholic sphere during the COVID-19 pandemic, the author discusses patterns of behavior observed in the media that contributed to polarization among people of good will. Such patterns included the practice of biases such as the fundamental attribution error, the white hat bias, and motivated cognition. Polarized beliefs also developed from individual and secular cultural over-reliance on the left brain's discomfort with uncertainty to find certainty where it did not exist. Reliance on the right brain's expertise of seeing the big picture and fostering relationships while incorporating information from the left brain would lead to better understanding and action. Counterfeit versions of individual human dignity and the common good led to media reporting battles between proponents of individual rights versus the common good, while a Catholic understanding of human dignity and the common good harmonizes them instead of seeing them in opposition. Finally, the article examines some practical advice to put relationships above being right. These include active forgiveness, examination of conscience around our biases, and the CAKE acronym among other bits of wisdom from medical literature, modern psychology, and the Catholic tradition for how we can each be better versions of ourselves when discussing polarizing medical topics.