I think that the definition is completely clear. “Information hazards are risks that arise from the dissemination or the potential dissemination of true information that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause harm. Such hazards are often subtler than direct physical threats, and, as a consequence, are easily overlooked. ” This has nothing to do with existential risk.
If lower trust in the CDC will save lives, facts that reduce trust are not an infohazard, and if lower trust in the CDC will lead to more deaths, they are. So—GIVEN THAT THE FACTS ARE TRUE, the dispute seems to be about different predictive models, not confusion about what an infohazard is. Even then, the problem here is that the prediction itself is not sufficiently specific. Lower trust among what group, for example? Most Lesswrongers are unlikely to decide to oppose vaccines, for example, but there are people who read Lesswrong who do so.
But again, the claims were in some cases incorrect, they confuse the CDC with the Trump administration more broadly, and many are unreasonable post-hoc judgments about what the CDC should have done that I think make the CDC look worse than a reasonable observer should conclude.
I think that the definition is completely clear. “Information hazards are risks that arise from the dissemination or the potential dissemination of true information that may cause harm or enable some agent to cause harm. Such hazards are often subtler than direct physical threats, and, as a consequence, are easily overlooked. ” This has nothing to do with existential risk.
If lower trust in the CDC will save lives, facts that reduce trust are not an infohazard, and if lower trust in the CDC will lead to more deaths, they are. So—GIVEN THAT THE FACTS ARE TRUE, the dispute seems to be about different predictive models, not confusion about what an infohazard is. Even then, the problem here is that the prediction itself is not sufficiently specific. Lower trust among what group, for example? Most Lesswrongers are unlikely to decide to oppose vaccines, for example, but there are people who read Lesswrong who do so.
But again, the claims were in some cases incorrect, they confuse the CDC with the Trump administration more broadly, and many are unreasonable post-hoc judgments about what the CDC should have done that I think make the CDC look worse than a reasonable observer should conclude.