Well you don't need to have had covid or someone you know to have had it to take the usual precautionary steps to avoid it.

The difference between the two things being mountains of evidence about the risk one, and little reputable evidence about the risk of the other.

Reputable being the key word here, where their reputation is based in how well their science adheres to the popular discourse among the intelligentsia.

Maybe you actually do? Lots of people hurt themselves taking livestock medicine.

Guess they shouldn't have taken the vaccines either.

> You could probably make the same argument that the obsession with trans issues by people who have no first hand experience and are completely unaffected by them is also some form of social contagion.

You could further make the argument (and people have!) that all spread of ideas and behaviors among people is a form of social contagion.