This is the breaking point. I have finally had enough and turned off FOX NEWS for the first time ever. I’ve decided that I need a FOX NEWS break. In fact, I need a break from all of the MSM news as well. What the news media is doing, including FOX is creating politically-driven pandemic panic.
Look FOX producers, I know you think you’re helping, but you’re definitely not. In fact, you and your media colleagues around the world are making things progressively worse. When you push out a single topic of discussion incessantly 24/7, you create and then add to the public panic. Know why? Because people don’t listen, they grab their news in one-minute sound bites and all they are hearing from you is bad and then worse news. Viewers and listeners filter out the “context.” Know why? Because you are not providing context to the problem at nearly the same rate as you do the bad news.
News producers, just step back for a moment and look at your own news feed. It’s 98% coronavirus driven. Of that percentage, at least 90% lacks any accurate contextual perspective. Context and good news doesn’t sell in the world of what you think “news” is. People are so bombarded by all of your bad news that by time any contextual news comes on, they are too numb to hear or process it. Hence, they panic.
Panic can be a far worse virus than COVID-19 and now just look at the results. Politicians not wanting to be thought of as being behind the coronavirus curve declare “State Emergencies” after only one COVID-19-related death as in California and New York. This despite the “context” that both victims were elderly and at extremely high-risk due to serious pre-existing medical problems. Sporting events, concerts, Broadway plays, major events and theme parks have closed. Flights have been cancelled and conferences have been postponed. Schools and colleges have closed and employees of major corporations have been ordered to work remotely from home. A couple of state governors have even forbidden gatherings of over 100 people.
The recent Congressional Bill designed to help Americans if passed by the Senate and signed by our President is destined to kill small businesses that can in no way afford paying for employee family leave for up to a three month period. Offering them a tax deduction in no way helps a small business owner forced to close their doors when their employees take advantage of what amounts to three months of free paid vacation caused by an act of God the employer had no responsibility for creating.
Panicked people practice panic purchasing. Nationwide there has been panic buying runs at local and major store chains for ridiculous items such as toilet paper, bottled water and anti-bacterial soap. Fights between shoppers have broken out at stores like Costco, Walgreens and neighborhood markets.
For God’s sake people, calm the heck down! Just stop for a moment and use your heads. Think, take a deep breath and just process for a moment. You want a few simple, vetted medical facts for context and reflection? Well, here they are.
Human and animal coronaviruses are actually common throughout the world and have been for many years. This current virus which has been labeled as “COVID-19” was first identified as coming from Wuhan, China. It’s not the first major problem virus coming from that country either. Remember Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that hit the world back in 2002-2003? Well, we’ll get to SARS in a minute.
A recent report by physicians at Yale New Haven Health, reminds us that people in the U.S. are actually at “little immediate risk of contracting coronavirus.” The symptoms for what was once diagnosed as “Swine Flu” or H1N1,” but is now commonly and mundanely referred to as “seasonal flu;” and coronavirus – COVID-19 are actually quite similar. Both the flu and COVID-19 are classified as “contagious respiratory viruses.” Both viruses can produce mild to severe respiratory illnesses where patients who contract the viruses can present with fever and coughs. In the case of COVID-19, shortness of breath is added.
In younger children and seniors over 80 years of age; especially those with other pre-existing medical issues and compromised immune systems; COVID-19 can transition to severe respiratory illness, progressing to pneumonia and yes, infrequently even death.
However, here’s what you need to understand to keep things in their proper perspective. The media-driven political response world-wide has been way over-blown so far. For instance, when the world experienced SARS from 2002-2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that there were only a total of 8,098 cases resulting in 774 deaths globally, with a death rate of under 10 %. (1)
In 2009 when the “Swine Flu,” then referred to as H1N1 struck, it affected 60.8 million people worldwide causing approximately 284,000 deaths including 274,300 hospitalizations and 12,500 deaths in the U.S. for a global death rate of .03%. (2)
While the impact of seasonal H1N1 flu varies from year to year, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that in the U.S., influenza affects anywhere between 9 – 45 million people, resulting in between 140,000 – 810,000 hospitalizations and between 12,000 – 61,000 deaths a year! During our most recent flu season between October, 2019 to the beginning of March, the CDC reported 37 million cases of flu with 370,000 hospitalizations and 22,000 reported deaths. (3)
Consider that as of this date, there are currently only approximately 7000 cases of COVID-19 identified in the U.S., with about 100 reported deaths. Yet, with all of these people inside the U.S. who are affected, hospitalized and die from the H1N1 seasonal flu, the annual death rate of flu is – pay attention now – more than 700 times higher than coronavirus COVID-19!
Yet, the H1N1 “seasonal flu” that kills literally hundreds of times more people in the U.S. than coronavirus COVID-19 receives nary a mention from pandemic politicians and the news media. No country closures, no flights cancelled; no conferences, sporting events, theme parks, elementary schools, universities closing; no employees working remotely. So why is that, since it’s painfully obvious that the common flue is far more deadly than COVID-19?
Look, as a medical investigator, I am in no way belittling the seriousness or potential risks of coronavirus to the global and U.S. public. I’m only suggesting here that you just might wish to consider placing your risk of contracting and dying from COVID-19 in its accurately vetted factual perspective.
If you’re the parents of a toddler; or a senior in your late sixties or older who already has preexisting medical issues; especially those that are respiratory related and/or with a deficient immune system; yes, you should be concerned. However, for the rest of you, just educate yourself and get off the ledge. Don’t allow a news media with a ratings agenda and pandemic politicians to manipulate you by driving a narrative that puts you, this nation and our world at even greater risk than COVID-19.
Don’t allow the panic-driving news media and placating politicians lead you down the rabbit hole of a self-fulfilling prophesy of perpetual panic and the ultimate destruction of all of our societal institutions. Instead, just turn off the TV and your car radio and read the simple medical facts that are readily available. Just educate yourselves and you will survive. We can all get past this if you just use your heads and stop letting questionable entities think for you.
The way I see it is that you are all placing your trust in the two forms of society that historically have the lowest credibility ratings amongst us – politicians and the news media.
How’s that working out for you so far?
For Further Insight:
Thanks Ron. We need to keep panic out of our culture or we are finished.