I posted this on the support group conversation.
It really is a complete load of ********.
I can't help wondering if the person who wrote this has got shares in Marks & Spencer or Calvin Klein, hoping that were are all going to cack ourselves, and consequently have to rush out and buy some more underwear.
It is prudent that we should learn the lessons from COVID-19 and consider how we can do things better in the future. In particular, countries should notify the WHO as soon as a new disease appears, and not cover it up for several months, like China almost certainly did with COVID.
But constantly scaremongering people with this nonsense is not going to achieve anything, except cause needless anxiety in certain sections of the population.
The format, as I recall as I've not watched it in a while, was always what was the main story that got the most complaints in the last week and what was the nature of those complaints (usually including verbatim extracts from the complainant) a relevant bod (such editor who oversaw the story) would give a response/explanation as to why they covered the story in the way they did or said/did whatever it was that caused the complaints. That was the bulk of the programme and then a smattering of other complaints about other stories given similar treatment.
I appreciate that a lot of people around here are very wound up about the media and Covid (and indeed Covid in general still) and disagree with the coverage most strongly. Though I fear you'll be waiting a long time for "corrections" as I'm far from convinced that the matter is a black and white as you all believe it to be. Then again I remain puzzled by why you're all so wound up about it still. Join the rest of us who have moved on from Covid and are enjoying life again. Ironically the place I hear about "rising infections" or "scary new diseases" or "will we need to have winter restrictions" or similar isn't the media or twitter it's right here on this thread!
Having a little scroll through BBC News right now and there doesn't appear to be any Covid or other "scare" stories on their front page. Sky News do appear to have a couple one is "COVID an 'inconvenience' rather than 'life-threatening' for many now, says WHO" and another explaining a bit more about Polio. None of this is exactly the media trying to whip people into a frenzy of Covid or other virus related terror...
All that being said, in general terms, I do think that the media should do a better job of issuing corrections or retractions. To take newspapers for instance I've long thought that any correction/retraction should be published in the same part of the newspaper and with the same prominence as the original story. If you're correcting a headline which was on the front page in size 72 font then the correction should be published on the front page in size 72 font! If it was on page 32 in size 12 font then stick it on page 32. Similar should apply to the TV and radio news (i.e. if it was item 1 on the six o'clock news that needs correcting then the correction will run as item 1 on the next six o'clock news!).
You won’t get an answer I’m afraid.
John Campbell has been absolutely spot on for quite some time; when Omicron was first reported from South Africa, some people refused to believe the South Africans (I believe this was partly down to xenophobia in some cases) but John Campbell gave plenty of evidence against the scaremongering that certain people in the UK were engaging in at the time, and things are panning out in line with John Campbell's predictions, with huge numbers of exposures to Sars-CoV-2 but tiny proportions of those becoming deaths.
Absolutely; I believe this was the case once the vaccines had been widely available, many many months ago, but anyone claiming it still makes sense to do this now is clearly either utterly bonkers or not looking at the actual facts and the bigger picture.
Fill yer boots then.
If face coverings/masks are so important could you explain why case rates rose after they were mandated and fell after the mandate stopped? I will concede that FFP3 masks IF worn, stored AND handled properly may help protect the wearer, but I have seen no real world evidence that a lot of the face coverings are anything more than a placebo.
Face coverings may be tolerable in some settings if there is a good reason to wear them, but what good reason is there at this stage?
Absolutely; when a virus jumps species it will take time for it to adapt to that species through natural selection to increase its fitness for the new host.
That's fine; anyone who either distrusts vaccines or who doesn't believe vaccines are sufficient, or whatever it is they believe, is welcome to wear one if they want.
I trust of course you will be using them properly, washing your hands before applying, replacing them if you touch them, get them wet, & every few hours. Also that you will have them properly fitted to your face, avoid having facial hair & of course dispose of them properly, i.e. in medical waste and not just in the normal waste.
