The medias world v's the real world

triathlon

After 24 hr daily coverage for 4 years over Brexit, all the fear mongering over all that time until the point where people were sick of it, and what really happened?
Now only months after Brexit is all cleared up and the sky never fell in we are handed corona virus, for the media to get it's teeth into. since the first day I heard about it I had about as close to zero fear of it as possible, and nothing has changed with me. The only fear I have by far is peoples stupidity and doom mongering that will be the real downfall of us if we are not careful.

Thrugelmir

I fear that boredom will set in with the coverage. Events will take their natural course. 

John_Doe

No doubt you'll get someone screech at you that Brexit is not "all cleared up", but I know what you mean.

It's fun watching the old die-hard anti-Brexit contingent find any excuse they can to moan about the government, the PM, advisors and so on because of this virus when they haven't accepted what they were warned of many times before Brexit; that there are things far more damaging to economies than leaving the EU.
Oil prices were one suggested factor.
Now here we are and media or not, the whole world has decided that Coronavirus is far more devastating to global economies than Brexit alone would ever have been to either the UK or the EU even in the wildest scenarios of doom.

But here's the thing: this virus has killed globally so far less people than flu kills in the UK every winter.
Far less in fact.
I don't doubt that I will  be screeched-at for saying that, but it is true although I do accept that numbers will increase - but nobody really knows by how many.

Which brings me nicely back to media and the interpretation globally of these events; has media "egging" or "exaggerating" the risk caused the global panic, or is it the result of pure fear?
Over one month in and the number of fatalities globally (while obviously not good; no death is ever good) does not really equate to the level of utter panic seen across the world.
Even in Italy which is seeing by far the worst incidence up until now with a population not much smaller than ours, less people have died from this virus than die every year from suicide here in the UK.
Suicide though is an old and a taboo subject obviously, whereas a virus is new, threatening news.

Unless global infections and fatalities decline soon, it may take some time before there can be a definitive answer - if indeed there ever is one - as to whether or not media have played a part in exaggerating just what this virus will do. 
How rampant will the virus eventually prove to be?
Will infection rates rise again as soon as countries remove restrictions?
We don't know yet, but we can be sure that our media will have their say.

Thrugelmir

John_Doe said:

Over one month in and the number of fatalities globally (while obviously not good; no death is ever good) does not really equate to the level of utter panic seen across the world.

Reporting of deaths lags reality.  We've 8 deaths in our local hospital awaiting confirmation from test results. 

Herzlos

Can someone explain how brexit is all cleared up? We've managed the easy bit in a record 4 years.
Plus it's all over the news again since Boris doesn't want to delay further (good on him).

The press loves fear mongering, because that's what sells.

triathlon

We will as a country always have to deal with adversity, and there will be times far worse than this in the future. But my personal view is that we should of from the very start just carried on 100% normally, and if you catch it you catch it,  which would be no worse than getting a bug like with have had to put up with for decades/centuries, and if you pass that on, again OK,  that's more people immune.
We have allowed the media to whip this up into mass panic and hysteria when the only worry through out this was the weakest being vulnerable. Not nice, but is it worth taking down the whole UK economy and the problems that will now lead to, and I am not just talking financial hardship, I am talking mental health as well as a bigger health crisis than this present virus along with social unrest

Thrugelmir

triathlon said:

We will as a country always have to deal with adversity, and there will be times far worse than this in the future. 

Unlikely to be in your life time though.

triathlon

Remind me of that when a few million foreign military boots are invading our shores

Herzlos

triathlon said:

We will as a country always have to deal with adversity, and there will be times far worse than this in the future. But my personal view is that we should of from the very start just carried on 100% normally, and if you catch it you catch it,  which would be no worse than getting a bug like with have had to put up with for decades/centuries, and if you pass that on, again OK,  that's more people immune.
We have allowed the media to whip this up into mass panic and hysteria when the only worry through out this was the weakest being vulnerable. Not nice, but is it worth taking down the whole UK economy and the problems that will now lead to, and I am not just talking financial hardship, I am talking mental health as well as a bigger health crisis than this present virus along with social unrest

That'd be a terrible idea and why it spread so fast - you can spread it for days before being aware you've even got it.

Plus, people are being re-infected with it so the immunity thing doesn't seem so certain.

I started this with a pretty relaxed attitude but we're barely 2 weeks into it so I think the known infection rate is really going to explode shortly due to people taking unnecessary risks.

phillw

John_Doe said:

No doubt you'll get someone screech at you that Brexit is not "all cleared up", but I know what you mean.

No point in screeching something that is plainly true.
Darwinism will sort out the "we won two world wars" crowd out.

Thrugelmir

triathlon said:

Remind me of that when a few million foreign military boots are invading our shores

Even Hitler decided that it wasn't worth while.