Media Coverage of COVID -19

[AdamWW]

1 person ...out of how many ? bit like C19 itself ! anymore more doom and gloom from the media. over the next year if you hace had C-19 you may get SEPSIS ! you have to ask...is iot worth living amnymore with all this doom / gloom / end of the world reporting !

I must be imagining the positive news stories I keep coming across.

 

[LAX54]

I must be imagining the positive news stories I keep coming across.

from AOL News:

People diagnosed with coronavirus are being encouraged to familiarise themselves with the signs of sepsis after a report found as many as 20,000 Covid-19 survivors could be diagnosed with it within a year.

One in five Covid-19 survivors who required hospital treatment is at risk of sepsis within a year of being discharged, according to the UK Sepsis Trust (UKST).

The charity has estimated 100,000 people are going to be discharged from hospital in the UK having had Covid-19.

This means about 20,000 people could be put at risk of life-threatening sepsis, the charity said, as it called for the Government to invest in an awareness campaign.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Shapps is returning early (today?) from Spain so he can do his quarantine and get back to the office at the earliest possible time.
He is rather key to the whole thing along with Health and FCO ministers.
His deputy today (Baroness Vere) said they were "reviewing" a local rather than national basis for quarantine.
Germany is managing local rules, so no reason why we can't.
It'll be red tape in immigration that is preventing it.

 

[AdamWW]

from AOL News:

People diagnosed with coronavirus are being encouraged to familiarise themselves with the signs of sepsis after a report found as many as 20,000 Covid-19 survivors could be diagnosed with it within a year.

One in five Covid-19 survivors who required hospital treatment is at risk of sepsis within a year of being discharged, according to the UK Sepsis Trust (UKST).

The charity has estimated 100,000 people are going to be discharged from hospital in the UK having had Covid-19.

This means about 20,000 people could be put at risk of life-threatening sepsis, the charity said, as it called for the Government to invest in an awareness campaign.

Um. Quoting one "bad" news story doesn't exactly disprove the idea that the media are also publishing "good" news stories as well.

Though this one looks a bit more like "press release regurgitated as news story" than anything else to me.

One bonus of being able to read newspapers on-line is that you don't have to go to the library or buy more than one paper to see how many news stories are word-for-word similar because they are just from the same press release...

 

[takno]

from AOL News:

People diagnosed with coronavirus are being encouraged to familiarise themselves with the signs of sepsis after a report found as many as 20,000 Covid-19 survivors could be diagnosed with it within a year.

One in five Covid-19 survivors who required hospital treatment is at risk of sepsis within a year of being discharged, according to the UK Sepsis Trust (UKST).

The charity has estimated 100,000 people are going to be discharged from hospital in the UK having had Covid-19.

This means about 20,000 people could be put at risk of life-threatening sepsis, the charity said, as it called for the Government to invest in an awareness campaign.

It's an interesting stat. Around 130k people have already been admitted to hospital with Covid in the UK, so 100k seems a bit optimistic on that measure. Looking at the stats for intensive care stays, I can't see a figure for total individuals, but it looks like 137 days have been spent in intensive care with an average stay of 4 days, so probably around 35k so far. On that measure I'd say 100k is a remarkably pessimistic figure. It's almost like the people working at the grim news mill just reprint these press releases without even reading them.

 

[AdamWW]

It's an interesting stat. Around 130k people have already been admitted to hospital with Covid in the UK, so 100k seems a bit optimistic on that measure. Looking at the stats for intensive care stays, I can't see a figure for total individuals, but it looks like 137 days have been spent in intensive care with an average stay of 4 days, so probably around 35k so far. On that measure I'd say 100k is a remarkably pessimistic figure. It's almost like the people working at the grim news mill just reprint these press releases without even reading them.

But being cynical, it got the charity some exposure, didn't it?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Though this one looks a bit more like "press release regurgitated as news story" than anything else to me.

One bonus of being able to read newspapers on-line is that you don't have to go to the library or buy more than one paper to see how many news stories are word-for-word similar because they are just from the same press release...

Ain't that the truth?! Often seems to happen when a chain of "local" newspapers are all part of the same group of companies, each report maybe tweaked slightly to put a local slant on the story.

Another thing that irritates slightly is when the BBC run a so-called "news" story which is actually a trailer for one of their current affairs programmes which is not airing until maybe later that evening or even the following day.

 

[takno]

But being cynical, it got the charity some exposure, didn't it?

It did, although to be honest I've already forgotten which disease I'm supposed to be worrying about, let alone the name of the charity.

 

[MikeWM]

Interesting to see how little media coverage there is of Brazil President Bolsonaro's recovery in the media, given how very interested indeed they were (top headlines!) when he caught it.

Also interesting that he was promoting taking hydroxychloriquine as an effective treatment - the drug that the media seems to be going to great lengths to try to either ignore or discredit (with Twitter even removing tweets by Donald Trump when he mentions it!).

 

[AdamWW]

Interesting to see how little media coverage there is of Brazil President Bolsonaro's recovery in the media, given how very interested indeed they were (top headlines!) when he caught it.

Also interesting that he was promoting taking hydroxychloriquine as an effective treatment - the drug that the media seems to be going to great lengths to try to either ignore or discredit (with Twitter even removing tweets by Donald Trump when he mentions it!).

Could the media perhaps be discrediting it because there is no real evidence that it does more good than harm?

 

[takno]

Interesting to see how little media coverage there is of Brazil President Bolsonaro's recovery in the media, given how very interested indeed they were (top headlines!) when he caught it.

Also interesting that he was promoting taking hydroxychloriquine as an effective treatment - the drug that the media seems to be going to great lengths to try to either ignore or discredit (with Twitter even removing tweets by Donald Trump when he mentions it!).

The rather pathetic crowing in the media about Bolsonaro getting the disease was rather distasteful, and entirely pointless since his claims all along were that most people wouldn't be seriously impacted by it, and the odds were always very strongly in favour of him ending up proving his point.

On the other hand, it's important to detach it from conversation about hydroxychloriquine. Real doctors in a number of locations have done tests on that, and the results varied between it really not being any good, and it being actively quite dangerous. It's nasty stuff generally as well - a member of my family is on it for other reasons and wouldn't ever recommend taking it unless it was really going to be genuinely useful.

The terrible media reporting on Covid, with the constant reporting of any junk on facemasks, and the constant promotion of the views of a relatively small number of scientists as some kind of settled consensus is making us lose a lot of trust in science as a society, and that's a shame. We shouldn't let that cause you to start believing that Bolsonaro is on the common man's side, giving useful medical advice about hydroxychloriquine any more than we should believe that Trump is doing us a solid by recommending bleach.

 

[MikeWM]

Could the media perhaps be discrediting it because there is no real evidence that it does more good than harm?

Rather like masks, then? (sorry, couldn't resist).

There seems to be quite a bit of contradictory evidence, but I know at least two of the 'negative' studies turned out to be total nonsense. As far as I can tell, it seems to at least deserve proper consideration, that so far it doesn't appear to be getting.

 

[Class 33]

Was watching ITV News Westcountry just now. Then intended to continue onto watching a bit of the ITV Evening News. But as soon as the latter came on..... BONG "Braced for a second wave of Coronavirus.....". For crying out loud!!! And then just immediately turned it off. Can't be doing with this scaremongering! There is no guarantee there will be a second wave! Currently in the UK anyway, the virus is fizzling out. Whilst the number of new cases seems to be flatlining at the moment, on a weekly basis the number of deaths are continuing to fall week by week. A shame this positive aspect doesn't get much of a mention on the news.

 

[Richard Scott]

Was watching ITV News Westcountry just now. Then intended to continue onto watching a bit of the ITV Evening News. But as soon as the latter came on..... BONG "Braced for a second wave of Coronavirus.....". For crying out loud!!! And then just immediately turned it off. Can't be doing with this scaremongering! There is no guarantee there will be a second wave! Currently in the UK anyway, the virus is fizzling out. Whilst the number of new cases seems to be flatlining at the moment, on a weekly basis the number of deaths are continuing to fall week by week. A shame this positive aspect doesn't get much of a mention on the news.

Seems some are quoting Boris Johnson on this one, sorry can't remember where I read it so cannot put in the link.

 

[MikeWM]

The rather pathetic crowing in the media about Bolsonaro getting the disease was rather distasteful, and entirely pointless since his claims all along were that most people wouldn't be seriously impacted by it, and the odds were always very strongly in favour of him ending up proving his point.

Indeed - and now that he was ok, and recovered, we hear silence. Odd that.

On the other hand, it's important to detach it from conversation about hydroxychloriquine. Real doctors in a number of locations have done tests on that, and the results varied between it really not being any good, and it being actively quite dangerous.

I think that's overly negative, some tests have been rather positive. This site is clearly biased (the graph at the top gives it away!) but it does link to a lot of studies showing positive results, as well as some negatives. I'd find something better but I'm about to go out, sorry!

It's nasty stuff generally as well - a member of my family is on it for other reasons and wouldn't ever recommend taking it unless it was really going to be genuinely useful.

I agree - I've been on medicines with very unpleasant side-effects before and you definitely only want to do it if it is useful. And some of the side-effects of HCQ are indeed nasty.

The terrible media reporting on Covid, with the constant reporting of any junk on facemasks, and the constant promotion of the views of a relatively small number of scientists as some kind of settled consensus is making us lose a lot of trust in science as a society, and that's a shame.

I agree - though I'm careful to distinguish between 'scientists' and 'science'. I hope others can do the same, but I'm not holding my breath.

We shouldn't let that cause you to start believing that Bolsonaro is on the common man's side, giving useful medical advice about hydroxychloriquine

Not in and of itself, absolutely not. I don't like being on the same side as Bolsanaro, Trump or the dictator from Belarus on *anything*, but these are strange times indeed.

 

[Class 33]

Yes. I did see Boris mentioning that on the bit of news I watched earlier. At the mo though, the deaths are continuing to fall on a weekly basis, so am feeling positive about that. But if the deaths do start creeping back up again, then I will start getting worried.

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

One bonus of being able to read newspapers on-line is that you don't have to go to the library or buy more than one paper to see how many news stories are word-for-word similar because they are just from the same press release...

I read the exact same article that @LAX54 quoted on my local rag's site - so you are entirely correct! Crazy...

 

[AdamWW]

Was watching ITV News Westcountry just now. Then intended to continue onto watching a bit of the ITV Evening News. But as soon as the latter came on..... BONG "Braced for a second wave of Coronavirus.....". For crying out loud!!! And then just immediately turned it off. Can't be doing with this scaremongering! There is no guarantee there will be a second wave! Currently in the UK anyway, the virus is fizzling out. Whilst the number of new cases seems to be flatlining at the moment, on a weekly basis the number of deaths are continuing to fall week by week. A shame this positive aspect doesn't get much of a mention on the news.

Well deaths reducing is certainly a good thing in itself, but the first indicator of a "second wave", if by that we mean infections starting to go up again, will be the infection figures going up, - it will take a while before that's indicated in the death figures.

It would be great if the virus is "fizzling out", but I can't see how a flatlining number of new cases indicates that - they need to be going down for that to be the case, surely?

 

[Huntergreed]

The mirror this evening on Facebook:

BREAKING: More and more lockdowns could be coming

Key words: Could Be

The virus could be dying out

Herd immunity could be reached

A vaccine could be made

But we don’t see this reported, I’m absolutely sick of the media’s speculative scare mongering that seems to have become commonplace amongst all the outlets. Why are the media so “pro-lockdown”, arguably more so than any other group or industry?

 

[Silverlinky]

I didn't see many (any) news reports yesterday making anything of the reported daily death figure. Yes, we all know that the reported figures on Mondays are historically low, but still, yesterdays figure of 7 was the FIRST time, yes the FIRST time since these figures were being compiled that it had been a single figure. the Worldometer site lists the first daily reported UK figure was on March 14th.....18 deaths. So you'd think that a figure of only 7 would be some good news to report?

But then again, neither has it really been reported that new daily case figures have been under 1000 every single day for over a month (June 26th 1251 cases was the last 4 figure day), daily COVID admissions to hospital have fallen from nearly 3500 at the peak to just 163. The amount of people in critical care on ventilators has fallen from 3300 to just 97. The number of people in hospital with COVID period has fallen from nearly 20000 to 1300.

This is the sort of stuff that should be being reported, its all out there and available in the public domain to a journalist with half a brain, but no.....what do we get? Fears of a second wave, fear of dying from a secondary illness....fear fear fear...and most of the general public fall for it.

 

[birchesgreen]

I've noticed several stories every day banging on about second waves, much of the media is now stuck in covid mode, maybe we need a nice war to rebalance it all.

 

[Jonny]

I didn't see many (any) news reports yesterday making anything of the reported daily death figure. Yes, we all know that the reported figures on Mondays are historically low, but still, yesterdays figure of 7 was the FIRST time, yes the FIRST time since these figures were being compiled that it had been a single figure. the Worldometer site lists the first daily reported UK figure was on March 14th.....18 deaths. So you'd think that a figure of only 7 would be some good news to report?

But then again, neither has it really been reported that new daily case figures have been under 1000 every single day for over a month (June 26th 1251 cases was the last 4 figure day), daily COVID admissions to hospital have fallen from nearly 3500 at the peak to just 163. The amount of people in critical care on ventilators has fallen from 3300 to just 97. The number of people in hospital with COVID period has fallen from nearly 20000 to 1300.

This is the sort of stuff that should be being reported, its all out there and available in the public domain to a journalist with half a brain, but no.....what do we get? Fears of a second wave, fear of dying from a secondary illness....fear fear fear...and most of the general public fall for it.

I have heard the term "panic-demic" based on the media response. That is one way of describing the mass panic that has ensued.

 

[adc82140]

The Daily Express are actually using the generic prefix "Covid Panic" before every article, like they use the prefix "World War 3 fears" before every article on Russia or China. I'm all for freedom of the press etc., but with freedom comes responsibility. This needs to be addressed.

 

[birchesgreen]

Oh this will get the doomsdayers and conspiracy theorists about the mark of the beast in a tizz...

Will travel be safer by 2022?

Physicists, engineers, biologists and citizen scientists are devising new technologies and tests so we can globetrot again.

www.bbc.com

Travellers would present the customs officers with an entrance visa and a vaccination record. That could be a paper card – or a tiny tattoo on their arm, invisible to the naked eye but readable by an infrared scanner.

 

[Bantamzen]

Oh this will get the doomsdayers and conspiracy theorists about the mark of the beast in a tizz...

Will travel be safer by 2022?

Physicists, engineers, biologists and citizen scientists are devising new technologies and tests so we can globetrot again.

www.bbc.com

Whoa! Now that's starting to enter the dystopian nightmare for sure!

 

[takno]

Oh this will get the doomsdayers and conspiracy theorists about the mark of the beast in a tizz...

Will travel be safer by 2022?

Physicists, engineers, biologists and citizen scientists are devising new technologies and tests so we can globetrot again.

www.bbc.com

Product-minded technologists are definitely evil and should certainly consult an ethics specialist before going market - special report

 

[ChiefPlanner]

The Daily Express are actually using the generic prefix "Covid Panic" before every article, like they use the prefix "World War 3 fears" before every article on Russia or China. I'm all for freedom of the press etc., but with freedom comes responsibility. This needs to be addressed.

The Daily Express has at least two "heartbreak" stories daily with regard to the Royals. They could do with some "new phrases" in the print vocabulary.

 

[Bantamzen]

The Daily Express has at least two "heartbreak" stories daily with regard to the Royals. They could do with some "new phrases" in the print vocabulary.

At least its distracting them from their usual "killer" heatwaves or "the worst winter in 1,000,000,000 years" headlines....

 

[ChiefPlanner]

At least its distracting them from their usual "killer" heatwaves or "the worst winter in 1,000,000,000 years" headlines....

Yes - a bad winter further reduces the readership !- the weather is the default headline. That and even more Royal heartbreaks.

 

[RomeoCharlie71]

At least its distracting them from their usual "killer" heatwaves or "the worst winter in 1,000,000,000 years" headlines....

I would make a joke about temperatures rising to 40c, but...