I have to disagree with people who say the media have been overreacting, scaremongering and we are falling for the hype
People online say we are nowhere near as bad as Italy, its 8 deaths and less than 500 cases who cares but Italy had less confirmed cases at the same point during their outbreak than we have today and the curve looks like in 2 weeks or so we will be in a similar situation to them. France, Germany and Spain will be a few days ahead of us. I've been saying for weeks that the numbers now are nothing compared to where we will be 2,4,6,8,10,12 weeks into the future. The media telling us how bad it could get in a worst case scenario is also justified as that is what the experts are telling us could happen - they are just reporting it.
The media can not say the WHO have declared it a pandemic unless its announced it is, They can't say a country is partially locked down if it isn't and they can't say Italy is all but shut down now if it isn't - those are the facts that they have been reporting. if officials didn't say them they couldn't report them
There are a lot of people online in denial of how bad this is going to get and many have the attitude of i'll be ok as i'm young but its not about them its about parents and grandparents who will be badly affected by this. The flu numbers people keep banding about to dismiss the "scaremongering" are also a similar problem. At the moment flu kills many more than this has but its not going to stay that way. The number of new cases globally has increased by 26% in 5 days and Italy has reported more deaths over the last 3 days than during the worst days in China. Their peak may not come for another month and 6 weeks for ours. we have probably seen less than 1% of what is heading our way with "95% of cases over a 9 week period and 50% of them in a 3 week period". is that media scaremongering? no its from the government advisers
Despite the science and the experts I'm shocked by how little has so far been done in this country, Allowing up to 250,000 to attend Cheltenham Festival sounds madness to me when many other places banned large events days ago and I hear the arguments about closing schools but many other countries have now seen it as a step that needs to be taken, its not done lightly, Banning flights for a month is not done lightly but other countries are waking up to how serious this is and how serious its going to get. In times like this we need the media to hold the government to account and its disgraceful that the government is still boycotting certain outlets. The time for pathetic child like behaviour is over
I think the media have done a good job so far and in terms of tv presentation the graphics are clear and easy to understand. I don't feel that they are fuelling the panic, the numbers do that all on their own and hearing first hand accounts from doctors who are dealing with it right now in other countries.
I've seen people moaning that the media don't mention how many have recovered. Sky News does every time they go through all the main numbers
Over the last couple of days sky news has also been presenting a key facts slideshow at the end of the hour. no presenter, no voice over just the usual music which leaves us to read it ourselves . I think this is an effective way to get the information across to the viewer calmly and answers some of the common questions people will want to know
If you still think we are overreacting in a worst case scenario its said 80% of the global population could get it. if just 1% of those die we would be looking at 62 million deaths. then in poorer countries the death rate would be much higher
Even if only 10% of the global population gets infected with a 1% death rate that is 7.8 million deaths
The Spanish flu in 1918 killed around 50 million people - This potentially could do the same so in my opinion this is one of, if not the biggest event and story of our lifetimes. Suddenly the last 3 years of Brexit seem like a piece of cake
Last edited by richard h on 12 March 2020 9:05am - 2 times in total
