Bill Maher criticizes media coverage of covid pandemic

[PunkTheFunk 125,734]

4 minutes ago, ARTPOPSYCHOLOGY said:

What’s positive is the improvements that have been made. People just tend to turn a blind eye to that though and continue living in fear. It will get us nowhere. This is a historic time in our lives, but there’s nothing wrong with reporting the positives. The curve is almost flattened in the entire world. We have a long way to go, but the worst is over. 

"The worst is over" -- do you have an extra crystal ball I can borrow? 

[Morphine Prince 109,984]

He made some points about sensationalism but unfortunately it came off as him downplaying, which is more dangerous than sensationalism.

Also, him mentioning the flu is counterproductive. Look at the numbers. More people have died of COVID-19 in the US in ONE MONTH than from the entire FLU SEASON in 2018-2019. This is WITH social distancing measure that have prevented a wider spread.

So yeah, this is something we should be taking VERY seriously. 

Also, "The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, annual influenza epidemics result in about 3-5 million cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths."

COVID-19 is currently at 160,000 deaths worldwide, most of them in the last 1-2 months. 

[Economy 53,130]

Just now, Morphine Prince said:

He made some points about sensationalism but unfortunately it came off as him downplaying, which is more dangerous than sensationalism.

Also, him mentioning the flu is counterproductive. Look at the numbers. More people have died of COVID-19 in the US in ONE MONTH than from the entire FLU SEASON in 2018-2019. This is WITH social distancing measure that have prevented a wider spread.

So yeah, this is something we should be taking VERY seriously. 

Also, "The World Health Organization estimates that worldwide, annual influenza epidemics result in about 3-5 million cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths."

COVID-19 is currently at 160,000 deaths worldwide, most of them in the last 1-2 months. 

I did not agree with his comparisons of the flu

 

But I did agree with the media sensasionalism points

[Queen Bitch 10,513]

3 minutes ago, Jewelsdelove said:

Conservative under the guise of having liberal views. The only ‘liberal’ thing about him is his hatred of trump 

Keep telling that to yourself. 

[StarstruckIllusion 53,702]

Tbh I kinda agree. My main critique is that I barely see coverage on how people recover. I basically had to look up what the means for myself. 

FYI: It means a wiped out immune system (bad) and potential lung damage (very bad) but apparently your systems disappear, but you can get reinfected apparently. It can only be concrete after 2 consecutive negative tests. 

It shouldn’t take Celebs to give us a hint that this virus isn’t the end of humanity. 

[ARTPOPSYCHOLOGY 6,283]

2 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said:

"The worst is over" -- do you have an extra crystal ball I can borrow? 

Nope! But the crystal ball exists in one of 100 statistical models, press conferences, etc, showing that the spread has slowed, hospitalizations are down and deaths aren’t happening in mass numbers *everywhere*. The only way it can get as bad as it was when numbers were doubling everyday is if tomorrow everyone resumed normal life. That’s not going to happen. I dislike trump strongly but even with his phased plans precautions are in place. We have a LONG way to go but it doesn’t require a Medical Degree to actually looking at numbers and analyze data and see that most countries are stabilizing. 

[Morphine Prince 109,984]

Also, death rate doesn't tell the full picture. At first it was calculated the death rate could be 2-3%. A lot more than something like the flu. We are now seeing it could be lower. HOWEVER, this does not mean it's all good news. COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu, so there could be more cases, and quickly, which would results in more deaths, not only from the disease, but hospital system collapse. 

The flu has a 0.1% death rate. Let's say 100 people get it. 1 person dies.

Now let's say COVID-19 also was discovered to have 0.1% death rate. But it's more contagious. So 200 people get it in the same time frame the 100 people get it. That's 2 people dead from COVID-19. Double. Now convert that into thousands or even millions. 

Take it seriously, people. 

 

[PhuckGagaDaily 481]

6 minutes ago, Queen Bitch said:

Keep telling that to yourself. 

He criticised democrats for opposing Kavanaugh. Did you forget that? 

[TheQueenEnthusiast 937]

Just now, Economy said:

How about neither and just report unbiased like they are supposed to? Not downplaying it but not exaggerating panic?

 

Not being overreactive doesn't mean they have to be under reactive. This doesn't have to be one or the other extreme

 

They could be more balanced if they tried

Because the sad reality is the US doesn't care about unbiased media. It's the sheer reality of America RIGHT NOW. Everything is for an industry or the allies of those industries. It has SOME type of bias or rhetoric to spew forth. 

Global warming is a huge indicator where scientists are saying this takes precedence over anything and huge swaths of Americans are like meh. 

[TheQueenEnthusiast 937]

10 minutes ago, Jewelsdelove said:

Conservative under the guise of having liberal views. The only ‘liberal’ thing about him is his hatred of trump 

Thank you. This. 

[Queen Bitch 10,513]

1 minute ago, Jewelsdelove said:

He criticised democrats for opposing Kavanaugh. Did you forget that? 

I don't think that alone makes him a conservative. 

[Supersonic 49,376]

Just now, ARTPOPSYCHOLOGY said:

What’s positive is the improvements that have been made. People just tend to turn a blind eye to that though and continue living in fear. It will get us nowhere. This is a historic time in our lives, but there’s nothing wrong with reporting the positives. The curve is almost flattened in the entire world. We have a long way to go, but the worst is over. 

All offense, this is very cynical but I don't think the (broadly uneducated) general public worldwide, aka humanity as a whole can be trusted to know what's best for their own interests. The press coverage I saw world wide about Covid-19, specifically from trustworthy good news sources, was pretty... neutral and matter of factly to the realities of the disease, its spread and how it affects the world.  I agree that we still have a long way to go, but focusing solely on the minute improvements paints a false picture of the severity of the situation and our current position in fighting this disease. Pretending like this is gonna be over soon will definitely lead people getting more careless and reckless. Which will cause second and third waves of infections that could destroy the progress we made in containing Covid-19 and lead to even stricter lockdowns, like China is experiencing now again.

[Economy 53,130]

2 minutes ago, TheQueenEnthusiast said:

Because the sad reality is the US doesn't care about unbiased media. It's the sheer reality of America RIGHT NOW. Everything is for an industry or the allies of those industries. It has SOME type of bias or rhetoric to spew forth. 

Global warming is a huge indicator where scientists are saying this takes precedence over anything and huge swaths of Americans are like meh. 

This is not a US issue tho. I'm not American... And my frustrations with media include Canada's media too not just US

 

Canada's media always does the exact same ****. Either downplay something, or more frequently dramatize or sensationalize

 

Simply reporting all of the facts with proportional attention and unbiased is something they never do

 

When I criticize their sensationalism... I'm not calling for them to downplay it. I'm criticizing lack of balance that needs to be addressed

 

I sometimes whatch the Portuguese news... They do a much better job of simony reporting all the facts without cherry picking for sensationalism. Dunno why North America can't do it

 

[Morphine Prince 109,984]

8 minutes ago, StarstruckIllusion said:

Tbh I kinda agree. My main critique is that I barely see coverage on how people recover. I basically had to look up what the means for myself.

Because recoveries are irrelevant to the hospitals in comparison to hospitalization needs and deaths. It's more important to know how much hospitals will fill up and how many will die. 

CNN has a table almost all day long with cases, recoveries, and deaths. So if you want a news channel with that, CNN is an option.

[ShadowHunter 866]

this is off topic on purpose: ggd needs to stop being sooo uptiiiiight