Media Coverage of COVID -19

[bramling]

a PM who can't work things out for himself or think things through.

Got it in one there.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Completely agree the way policies are being leaked / “announced” is bad.

Certainly not ideal, but is this so that the policymakers (who are not necessarily Boris himself) can gauge the reaction to what is initially being proposed and then "fine tune" the policy as necessary?

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Certainly not ideal, but is this so that the policymakers (who are not necessarily Boris himself) can gauge the reaction to what is initially being proposed and then "fine tune" the policy as necessary?

If this is indeed what the policymakers are doing, where are they looking, in order to ‘gauge’ the reaction?
If they get Boris to imply that mandating face-coverings everywhere outside your home is being considered, would they ‘gauge’ the reaction by what’s trending in Twitter & Facebook?
Lunacy!
(They would form a different view of the reaction if they looked in this forum)

 

[Mag_seven]

Today Boris seems to have announced some government policy regarding the opening of schools versus closing of other things via his column in the Sunday Times. I can't link to it as it's behind a pay wall. And this is my issue. Would any other country allow policy to be announced in this manner? Covid aside, I don't think it's appropriate for any sitting PM to discuss any policy issues in a newspaper column. This sort of thing should be reserved for TV interviews by a public service broadcaster (BBC, ITV or C4), or even a ministerial statement if required, which the papers can be free to report on.

What are your thoughts?

(mods feel free to merge with the media coverage thread if needed, but I think this is a diverging topic)

This is why the Dowining St briefings were set up because at the time Matt Hancock was effectively announcing health policy via interviews with The Sunday Telegraph which was behind a paywall. We need these briefings back.

 

[Scrotnig]

If they get Boris to imply that mandating face-coverings everywhere outside your home is being considered, would they ‘gauge’ the reaction by what’s trending in Twitter & Facebook?

I have believed since March that this is exactly what they are doing! It's absolutely outrageous.

 

[kez19]

More scaremongering from the mirror tonight:



As far as I’m concerned, another national lockdown is not going to happen, and I’m absolutely beyond sick of the media using scare-mongering tactics to try and increase clicks and ad revenue.

I’m not saying there should be state-control over the media, as that is very dangerous, but there needs to be a review into how irresponsibly the media has behaved throughout this crisis.

The thing is the media love this, it’s always been looking at the negative not the positives, if there was a UK wide lockdown again from both UK/Scottish Governments I would hope the media would have the balls to scrutinise why the need but I guess this is wishful thinking (again just think all uk media love this) (I ain’t wanting another lockdown they can get on their bike!)

Isn’t it a bit odd that gyms are to open (maybe) next month in Scotland so even something that’s last to open will be the first to close again? I wonder if people will protest this time or will the media portray them as “bad”

 

[PTR 444]

And if scaremongering from the Mirror wasn’t enough, here’s the current headline from the Daily Fail’s website. Seriously, the papers are going to have to pay the full price for trying to inflict fear into our lives at this rate!

Britain records ten more coronavirus deaths in preliminary figures

A total of 1,062 people have tested positive for coronavirus today bringing Britain's total cases to 310,825. The country has not seen an increase this large since June 25.

www.dailymail.co.uk

The numbers - which bring Britain's total cases to 310,825 - add fuel to fears that the UK might be heading for a second wave of the deadly bug after lockdown measures were gradually eased.

The figures come almost exactly a fortnight after Boris Johnson predicted a second wave in two weeks.

On July 28, a senior government source said Prime Minister Boris Johnson was 'extremely concerned' by outbreaks 'bubbling up', both at home and abroad.

Scotland has reported 48 new cases today, while Wales has reported a further 26.

The drastic rise in figures - up from 758 yesterday - may come as a shock to lockdown-sceptic revelers who flocked to Britain's beaches today.

Swathes of beach goes were pictured dotted along the coast this weekend - with many ignoring social distancing rules.
While case figures have shot up today, the country's daily death toll remains low after a further eight people who tested positive for Covid-19 died in Britain. Both Scotland and Wales reported no further deaths.

 

[adc82140]

It still works out at just 0.6% of tests coming back positive. But that doesn't sell papers.

Also they fail to mention that the last two days were down by a couple of hundred, so I suspect some catch up has just happened.


They'll be beside themselves when the French figures come out tomorrow. They count the whole weekend's worth of tests on Monday.

 

[brad465]

If only there was some sort of inquiry that was recently made into media behaviour

I presume you're talking about Leveson, which I agree should have been implemented, but Cameron would have lost Murdoch's backing if he did that. I don't know how this can be made possible but should media coverage in recent months be assessed I'd like to see serious questions asked about the discarding of Leveson.

 

[Class 33]

Some positive news for once from the Express....

UK second wave fears quashed? Britain almost 'reaching herd immunity'

FEARS of a second wave hitting the UK this winter have been quashed by the country's plunging death rate as the UK may soon have herd immunity, a top doctor has claimed.

www.express.co.uk

UK second wave fears quashed? Top doc claims Britain almost 'reaching herd immunity'
FEARS of a second wave hitting the UK this winter have been quashed by the country's plunging death rate as the UK may soon have herd immunity, a top doctor has claimed.

Official data from NHS England points to a huge drop in the number of coronavirus patients being treated in hospitals today compared to mid-April, during the height of the pandemic. One top doctor in Birmingham, one of the country's hardest-hit areas, noted the "huge downturn" in Covid admissions. Dr Ron Daniels said last Thursday there were only three critically ill coronavirus patients across three hospitals which serve half of Birmingham's one million residents.

Dr Daniels The Sunday Times: “Compare that to where we were a couple of months ago, when we had almost 200 patients ventilated at any one given time, and this is a huge downturn."

He said Britain is "almost reaching herd immunity".

Dr Daniels also said he does not expect an increase in hospital admissions nor a second wave to hit the UK.

He explained: “I think that’s highly unlikely because the pubs have been open for over a month, people have been socially interacting heavily during that time, and the natural history of this disease is that if you contract the virus and you’re going to end up in hospital, you’re pretty much in hospital within 15 days of contracting it.”

Caregivers in England are now tasked with treating around 700 patients per day.

This is in stark contrast to the numbers seen in hospitals four months ago, recorded as about 17,000 a day.

The drop of 96 percent since the peak of the UK's epidemic should ease fears of a deadly second round of the crisis.

Last week, some hospitals marked a major milestone by declaring they did not have a single COVID-19 patient on their wards.

The country's falling death toll also offers hope to Britons.

Last Thursday only five hospital deaths were recorded.

This marked a 99 percent decrease from the 866 deaths declared by NHS England on April 10 - the day with the highest number of deaths since the beginning of the outbreak.

On Sunday a further 10 people who tested positive for coronavirus died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,411, NHS England said.

The patients were aged between 45 and 89 and all had known underlying health conditions.

Two deaths were reported with no positive COVID-19 test result.

The region with the highest number of deaths was the Midlands with four.

There were three deaths in the North East & Yorkshire, two in the East of England and one in London.

There were no deaths reported in the North West, where local lockdown measures in place in Greater Manchester and parts of east Lancashire were extended on Friday to include Preston.

Authorities in Preston are targeting young people with their advertising campaigns to urge people to abide by social distancing rules.

The slogan "Don't kill Granny" is being used to remind youngsters that the elderly generations are more at risk of dying of the virus than their own age group.

A very good report offering some believable hope, and one I'm inclined to believe. Unlike another article I read where Patrick Vallance predicts as many as 245,000 people in the UK could die from a second wave of Coronavirus this winter!

 

[kez19]

Some positive news for once from the Express....

UK second wave fears quashed? Britain almost 'reaching herd immunity'

FEARS of a second wave hitting the UK this winter have been quashed by the country's plunging death rate as the UK may soon have herd immunity, a top doctor has claimed.

www.express.co.uk

A very good report offering some believable hope, and one I'm inclined to believe. Unlike another article I read where Patrick Vallance predicts as many as 245,000 people in the UK could die from a second wave of Coronavirus this winter!

So we got one paper saying doom and gloom the other its positive (yet most of the time it gets slated for its OTT reactions) (Mirror doom/gloom), how are the public meant to believe anything?

 

[bramling]

So we got one paper saying doom and gloom the other its positive (yet most of the time it gets slated for its OTT reactions) (Mirror doom/gloom), how are the public meant to believe anything?

Normally a good rule of thumb is to believe the exact opposite of whatever the Express comes out with. If that holds true perhaps we should actually be worried?!

 

[kez19]

Normally a good rule of thumb is to believe the exact opposite of whatever the Express comes out with. If that holds true perhaps we should actually be worried?!

Perhaps? Or quite possibly they have got something err... right? However expect next week back to the drawing board ... doom and gloom...

 

[bramling]

Perhaps? Or quite possibly they have got something err... right? However expect next week back to the drawing board ... doom and gloom...

I suppose there is a logical explanation; since a proportion of the population seem to like lockdowns, restrictions and/or the idea of masks 24/7 indoors and outdoors, perhaps the idea of normality *is* doom and gloom?

 

[londiscape]

Normally a good rule of thumb is to believe the exact opposite of whatever the Express comes out with. If that holds true perhaps we should actually be worried?!

Normally I would agree, however even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Dr Daniels' conclusions are supported by proper statistics and evidence, unlike most of the other coronadoom sh*te that's been circulating in mainstream media of late.

 

[kez19]

I suppose there is a logical explanation; since a proportion of the population seem to like lockdowns, restrictions and/or the idea of masks 24/7 indoors and outdoors, perhaps the idea of normality *is* doom and gloom?

One word...depressing more like!

 

[kez19]

Normally I would agree, however even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Dr Daniels' conclusions are supported by proper statistics and evidence, unlike most of the other coronadoom sh*te that's been circulating in mainstream media of late.

Isn’t the Express meant to be “right wing” anyway as we are led to believe? So what they publish to most people is similar to mainstream... shi.e

Admit not a regular reader of paper in question but I am giving up hope on mainstream media these days, can just get through regional news (just)

 

[DB]

Isn’t the Express meant to be “right wing” anyway as we are led to believe? So what they publish to most people is similar to mainstream... shi.e

The Express is very right-wing, but the whole doom-and-gloom, we must wear masks, etc, thing doesn't seem to have a political alignment - the BBC and the Guardian are at it as well.

This is different from the US, where the mask lobby seems to be more associated with the left.

 

[LAX54]

Maybe not 'media' related, but it seems the Government are going to stop the daily death figure, as they are 'skewed' and do not reflect the actual numbers, it is said that the way the government health agency calculated the figures was skewed as patients who tested positive for coronavirus, but are successfully treated, will still be counted as dying from the virus even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later England's death figures vary substantially from day to day due to this reason, but I assume they will not reissue figures that take this into account !

 

[adc82140]

Maybe not 'media' related, but it seems the Government are going to stop the daily death figure, as they are 'skewed' and do not reflect the actual numbers, it is said that the way the government health agency calculated the figures was skewed as patients who tested positive for coronavirus, but are successfully treated, will still be counted as dying from the virus even if they had a heart attack or were run over by a bus three months later England's death figures vary substantially from day to day due to this reason, but I assume they will not reissue figures that take this into account !

Good thing too. In the grand scheme of how many people die each day of anything in the UK, the figures for Covid are now so low as to be background noise. The headline figure should be how many people are in hospital on ventilators with Covid.

 

[LAX54]

Good thing too. In the grand scheme of how many people die each day of anything in the UK, the figures for Covid are now so low as to be background noise. The headline figure should be how many people are in hospital on ventilators with Covid.

Actually I did say they will stop reporting daily, but it seems it is they 'may' stop reporting daily, my bad. when will the Gov admit that they may have over reacted ?

 

[carlberry]

Some positive news for once from the Express....

UK second wave fears quashed? Britain almost 'reaching herd immunity'

FEARS of a second wave hitting the UK this winter have been quashed by the country's plunging death rate as the UK may soon have herd immunity, a top doctor has claimed.

www.express.co.uk

A very good report offering some believable hope, and one I'm inclined to believe. Unlike another article I read where Patrick Vallance predicts as many as 245,000 people in the UK could die from a second wave of Coronavirus this winter!

Basically saying things are fine now if your compare them with the worse position that we were in which is true but only because everybody is too scared to go within touching distance of anybody.

I don't understand the 'almost reaching herd immunity' bit which is likely to be quoted out of context. If this was even remotely close to being true then the correct plan of action would be to remove all limits on anything and encourage unlimited social contact (a bit like the 'chicken pox parties' that parents used to organise many years ago).
The fact the government continues with more local lockdowns and quantines that are damaging to it's reputation suggests that, as most recent surveys have suggested, we're well below 10% immunity.

 

[DB]

Basically saying things are fine now if your compare them with the worse position that we were in which is true but only because everybody is too scared to go within touching distance of anybody.

I don't understand the 'almost reaching herd immunity' bit which is likely to be quoted out of context. If this was even remotely close to being true then the correct plan of action would be to remove all limits on anything and encourage unlimited social contact (a bit like the 'chicken pox parties' that parents used to organise many years ago).
The fact the government continues with more local lockdowns and quantines that are damaging to it's reputation suggests that, as most recent surveys have suggested, we're well below 10% immunity.

The realityseems to be that nobody knows how much immunity is out there, either through those who have had it without knowing or those who have sufficient immunity from other coronaviruses.

 

[adc82140]

There's an increasing belief that most infections are fought by T-Cells rather than antibodies. I can well believe when it comes to antibodies we are sitting at about 10%. However the big unknown is what percentage of us have immunity due to T cells. At 50% you have herd immunity.

The local lockdowns are knee jerk, in a response to detected cases, many if not most are asymptomatic. I'd be all in favour of local lockdowns if they said for example that xyz hospital was seeing a spike in admissions, but I have yet to see any report of this.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I reckon from what I'm reading that there's a reasonable chance that T-cells may be the cause of asymptomatic cases.

 

[jtuk]

There's an increasing belief that most infections are fought by T-Cells rather than antibodies. I can well believe when it comes to antibodies we are sitting at about 10%. However the big unknown is what percentage of us have immunity due to T cells. At 50% you have herd immunity.

The local lockdowns are knee jerk, in a response to detected cases, many if not most are asymptomatic. I'd be all in favour of local lockdowns if they said for example that xyz hospital was seeing a spike in admissions, but I have yet to see any report of this.

By that stage it's reactionary and too late though

 

[talldave]

There's an increasing belief that most infections are fought by T-Cells rather than antibodies. I can well believe when it comes to antibodies we are sitting at about 10%. However the big unknown is what percentage of us have immunity due to T cells. At 50% you have herd immunity.

The local lockdowns are knee jerk, in a response to detected cases, many if not most are asymptomatic. I'd be all in favour of local lockdowns if they said for example that xyz hospital was seeing a spike in admissions, but I have yet to see any report of this.

It would be good to see local lockdowns challenged in court but I don't suppose anyone is brave enough. Not overloading the NHS is a clear objective that can be measured, unlike the "for the greater good" s**t we have at the moment.

 

[MikeWM]

Good thing too. In the grand scheme of how many people die each day of anything in the UK, the figures for Covid are now so low as to be background noise. The headline figure should be how many people are in hospital on ventilators with Covid.

It is a fairly safe bet that more people will die from the current heatwave than from Covid this month.

 

[Bletchleyite]

It is a fairly safe bet that more people will die from the current heatwave than from Covid this month.

Which is the case because of the measures that have been put in place. If they hadn't, I'm sure that would not have been the case.

People keep making this fundamental error of comparing deaths from COVID with social distancing in place with deaths from other things that don't have any relevance to social distancing because they aren't infectious diseases.

 

[talldave]

It is a fairly safe bet that more people will die from the current heatwave than from Covid this month.

True, but anyone who coughed within last six months will be classified as Covid just to boost project fear. Ironic that we may have to stop publishing death figures because they're not scary enough - you really couldn't make this up!