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Media Coverage of COVID -19

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al78

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BREAKING NEWS!

We interrupt this thread to announce that it has been reported that someone in Bolton sneezed this morning, and as a result the whole of the North of England is immediately under quarantine with anyone living within a 10 mile radius of the sneeze ordered to report to their local hospital for immediate termination.....

You can joke. but:

 
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HSTEd

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You can joke. but:


Well that is the inevitable consequence of Scottish Government policy, aided and abetted by British Government policy.

It won't be long before it turns nasty.
The political and other messaging coming out of Scotland is very reminiscent of some of the arguments used to "justify" apartheid in south africa.

(The group is 'unhygeinic' and carries diseases as an example)
 
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Bantamzen

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That coronavirus is not going away in the UK, infection rates are staying level or increasing, and if we stop the restrictions we have now they will rise exponentially, very likely to the point that the health system can't cope with all the people who require hospitalisation.

Wait what? Covid-19 isn't going away? And we don't put enough funding into the NHS?

Wow! Where have you been for the last few months? Covid-19 isn't going away. As I have said time and again, in our entire history we have eliminated 2, yes two viruses. So it pretty much goes without saying that this virus isn't just going to disappear.

As for dealing with the consequences of the virus, we know who are most at risk, we are even learning how to give them the treatments that will give them the best chance of survival. And that means that our healthcare services are better able to cope, which was after all the whole point of the initial lockdown.

Every day that passes shows Covid-19 to be less and less deadly. And it is time for people to stop panicking about it, because the absolute majority of us will not die as a result of it. We should be now pressing resources to help those that need it most, but so long as people keep distracting from this urgent need by creating panic we will not be able to.
 

AdamWW

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Wait what? Covid-19 isn't going away? And we don't put enough funding into the NHS?

Wow! Where have you been for the last few months? Covid-19 isn't going away. As I have said time and again, in our entire history we have eliminated 2, yes two viruses. So it pretty much goes without saying that this virus isn't just going to disappear.

Where have I been? Some of the time on thiis forum where some people genuinely appear to think that the low death figures mean that it's nearly fizzled out and by September we can all go back to normal.

As for dealing with the consequences of the virus, we know who are most at risk, we are even learning how to give them the treatments that will give them the best chance of survival. And that means that our healthcare services are better able to cope, which was after all the whole point of the initial lockdown.

Every day that passes shows Covid-19 to be less and less deadly. And it is time for people to stop panicking about it, because the absolute majority of us will not die as a result of it. We should be now pressing resources to help those that need it most, but so long as people keep distracting from this urgent need by creating panic we will not be able to.

What would your strategy be now if you were in charge?
 

jtuk

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OK. Even though that's not what Sweden has done?

For all intents and purposes it's business as usual. Sure they've suggested people work from home etc, but now we've done that and seen it works, we're not suddenly going to see everyone rushing into the office at the same time.
 

AdamWW

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For all intents and purposes it's business as usual. Sure they've suggested people work from home etc, but now we've done that and seen it works, we're not suddenly going to see everyone rushing into the office at the same time.

OK I was under the impression that there was still social distancing, bans on large gatherings etc. (e.g. this article).

Anyway we're going off topic so I'd better not go into this more, curious as I am as to what you think would happen.
 

Yew

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Apparently, 13 cases is now a newsworthy event. Of course, with the usual doom and gloom, rather than saying how contract tracing has worked effectively.



A cluster of 13 cases of Covid-19 linked to a pub in Aberdeen is being investigated by public health officials.

NHS Grampian said the cases were associated with The Hawthorn Bar in Howburn Place in the city centre.

The pub said the outbreak was linked to customers who visited on 26 July.

All those who tested positive are showing only mild symptoms, though the health board said there may be further cases linked to the cluster.
 

Bantamzen

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Where have I been? Some of the time on thiis forum where some people genuinely appear to think that the low death figures mean that it's nearly fizzled out and by September we can all go back to normal.



What would your strategy be now if you were in charge?

Very simple, fund the protection of those that are most at risk, i.e. the elderly, people in care & health environments. I would have thought that would be obvious?
 

AdamWW

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Seriously, you don't think that putting measures into place to protect those statistically most at risk is an obvious thing to do?

We may be at cross purposes.

In itself, yes I think it's an obvious thing to do.

As the entire strategy (i.e. do this but otherwise drop all other restrictions), which is what I thought you were suggesting, no.
 

AdamWW

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AdamWW

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Here is a quote from the WHO:

“A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.
“However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be.
“For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control.
“Testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all.
“For individuals, it’s about keeping physical distance, wearing a mask, cleaning hands regularly and coughing safely away from others. Do it all.”

This then becomes the headline "There might never be a silver bullet for Covid-19, says WHO chief"

Which he did say, but it's not exactly the thrust of his argument and it handily omits the "we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines" bit...
 

Richard Scott

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Here is a quote from the WHO:



This then becomes the headline "There might never be a silver bullet for Covid-19, says WHO chief"

Which he did say, but it's not exactly the thrust of his argument and it handily omits the "we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines" bit...
I do love the WHO -always can guarantee some doom and gloom even if there's some good news.
 

jtuk

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More disgraceful scaremongering on Today this morning about a second wave being worst than the first based on mathematical modelling. Words fail me at this stage.
 

adc82140

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We may well get a "second wave" of infections if we start testing 500,000 a day. Will that translate into a huge wave of hospital admissions? Probably not.
 

AdamWW

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More disgraceful scaremongering on Today this morning about a second wave being worst than the first based on mathematical modelling. Words fail me at this stage.

What is your objection?

Have you found a flaw in the model?
Do you think we can't usefully model infection spread?
Or (I haven't listened to it) are they taking worst case scenarios and presenting them as inevitable?

There are I think very good reasons for the NHS to prepare for a larger number of hospitalisations this winter than the peak we had so far. But if anyone is suggesting this is inevitable I would disagree.
 

Justin Smith

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It is probably unofficial, but I cannot escape the conclusion that this country has media censorship (or at the very least obvious bias) going full tilt over this Covid episode.
Has anyone else noticed that you rarely hear anyone on the media stating they think this lockdown and social distancing is all an overreaction and an unwarranted infringement of people's liberty which is probably doing more harm than good anyway ? Whether you agree with that statement or not is not the point, the fact is that many people do think that but their views are not heard.
The requirement for face masks in shops was the most obvious example. When it was announced the BBC had a load of vox pops on their news channels, all said they thought it a good idea and/or had no real problem with it. Nobody said they were really not happy about it and did not want to do it. Again, it doesn't matter if you agree with that or not, but the fact is many people (at least half the people I know) think that, but it is not reported.
Every time they have an "expert" on I'm screaming at the radio "ask them some difficult questions" (like why the death rate kept dropping right through the winding down of the lockdown), but they never do. Every thing they say is just accepted as indisputable fact despite the fact they've been wrong many times in their pessimistic forecasts. In fact I sent the BBC PM programme a list of questions to ask and not only did they not reply they never even acknowledged my E mail despite me asking for a read receipt.
When the death rate (for all causes dropped below the long term average in June it should have been lead item on the news, but it was hardly mentioned !
I've seen on some forums people stating provable facts (with links to the evidence ! ) in posts but the posts being deleted "for not taking the threat of this virus as seriously as we should be doing".
There was a slight relaxation of all this a month or two back (Matthew Parris, he's a big critic of this lockdown policy was on the radio) but since then we've reverted to full throttle censorship or, at the absolute least, bias.
It's worrying but the do say the first casualty of war is the truth.
 

Yew

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Whilst bias is not unusual for the tabloid media, it does seem that the BBC is showing a remarkably pro-government line. The political office often has a friendly relationship with the conservative party in usual times, but critique of government policy is at an all-time low. It's almost making me wonder if there are some behind the scenes "don't undermine the Government in a state of emergency" rules that we aren't party to.
 

adc82140

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There was an excellent leader in the Sun last week warning about the perils of over reaction. Well placed, as that's the news source of a lot of Karens. Also today on the BBC website, there is an article explaining why the infection figures are probably not going up in real terms.
 

carlberry

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Certainly the BBC will be trying to follow a 'state of emergency line', especially as it'll be aware that parts of the government (especially the unelected parts of it) is also after it for not following the party line during Brexit and the election.

The majority of the press wont want to rock the boat too much (even those on the left as Labour is following the line as well) as it's easier to sell newspapers with images of beaches (taken with a telephoto lens) pointing out how bad some people are then try to question things when you might end up on the wrong side of the argument.
 
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