The draconion measures in place in many countries around the world have largely been justified on the grounds that the coronavirus is the new black death and also on asymptomatic spread. In this thread I am going to list some of the ways that the media has been deliberately trying to amplify fear & leave out any sense of perspective. Here goes;
- Quoting total numbers of covid-related deaths rather than per-capita (per 100,000/per million), cheapest trick in the book, looks more scary that way doesn't it?
- Failure to differentiate between 'died of' and 'died with' covid (the fact that the vast majority of severe cases and deaths have been people with other risk factors; remember, people at risk of severe complications, such as those with chronic conditions, (e.g. cancer, respiratory conditions etc. all listed in your government and public healthcare system's websites))
- Failure to differentiate between 'case fatality rate (of people diagnosed with the disease) and 'infection fatality rate' (out of known or estimated total number of infected people), quoting only the former seems more scary doesn't it?
- Presenting those rare cases of younger healthy people who've had severe disease or who've died as if they're the norm; using anecdotes but leaving out the bigger picture; e.g. the death rates by age cohort or the percentage of those who're clinically vulnerable
- Only interviewing pro-lockdown medical experts yet ignoring the many epidemiologists and immunologists who're critical of lockdown; being very one-sided
- Sweden and non-lockdown countries; comparing them only to Norway and Finland (or not covering at all when outcomes in terms of hospitalisations and death outcomes are better)
- Giving a rolling death toll (hmm, imagine if they did a rolling death toll for heart attacks, cancer deaths, road traffic accidents ALL would totally DWARF covid-related deaths, wouldn't it be interesting if that happened?).
DISCLAIMER;
I'm not denying that covid is dangerous but I just wanted to point out some examples of the ways the media has been misleading and deliberately amplifying fear & trying to justify these measures.
Anyway, feel free to add to that. It seriously f***ing pisses me off. I thought I had to point out some of these ways the media has been misleading at least in the UK. It's likely that some points on the list have been true in other countries too. Let us know what your experience of the media has been wherever you are in the world.
Cheers.