Posted on 06/29/2020 3:28:12 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
It's another one of those Trump Era realities best described as unsurprising but nevertheless shocking.
Three serious research efforts have put numerical weight - yes, data-driven evidence - behind what many suspected all along: Americans who relied on Fox News, or similar right-wing sources, were duped as the coronavirus began its deadly spread.
Dangerously duped.
The studies "paint a picture of a media ecosystem that amplifies misinformation, entertains conspiracy theories and discourages audiences from taking concrete steps to protect themselves and others," wrote my Washington Post colleague Christopher Ingraham in an analysis last week.
Here's the reality, now backed by numbers:
Those who relied on mainstream sources - the network evening newscasts or national newspapers that President Donald Trump constantly blasts as "fake news" - got an accurate assessment of the pandemic's risks. Those were the news consumers who were more likely to respond accordingly, protecting themselves and others against the disease that has now killed more than 123,000 in the United States with no end in sight.
Those who relied on Fox or, say, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, came to believe that vitamin C was a possible remedy, that the Chinese government created the virus in a lab, and that government health agencies were exaggerating the dangers in the hopes of damaging Trump politically, a survey showed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Trump Era realities
unsurprising but nevertheless shocking.
right-wing sources
duped
Dangerously duped.
viewers were misled
right-wing news
gaslighting
Trump sycophancy
serious harm has been done
amplifies misinformation
nonsense and misinformation
right-wing news outlets
Those who relied on Fox or, say, radio personality Rush Limbaugh, came to believe that vitamin C was a possible remedy, that the Chinese government created the virus in a lab
.
Those who relied on mainstream sources got an accurate assessment
reality
serious research efforts
numerical weight
data-driven evidence
The US Census bureau says that 16.5% of the population is over age 65.
Obesity is another risk factor for Covid-19; 42.5% of the US population is obese. Diabetes is also a risk factor; 10.5% of the population has diabetes. These are CDC figures. The rate of heart disease is not quite so obvious (CDC discusses death rate from heart disease and risk factors, but I couldn't find an overall assessment of the rate of heart disease).
So, taking age and preexisting conditions into account, there is an extremely high number of people--at least 42%--whose freedom you would curtail so that those at lower risk could continue their lives of indulgence.
In my mind, it is far better to practice social distancing, wear masks, and use the tools of epidemiology to contain localized outbreaks than to remain a prisoner in my own home so that a bunch of entitled millennials can indulge themselves by protesting the very system that produced the standard of living they take for granted.
Wapo isn’t worth buying and using for toilet paper. This is just another smear against Conservatives.
Nothing was more mainstream than Fauci and WHO
Fauci was all over the mainstream MEdia and until early March, was calling the pandemic a nothingburger and recommending against masks
WHO did not even declare a pandemic until, I believe, 13 March
Anyone who swallowed what they were peddling suffered the consequences
Trump, who had a task force in place by early January, seems to have ignored WHO and Fauci at 3 critical moments: banning travel from China ( late Jan); banning travel from Iran ( late Feb); and banning travel from Europe ( mid March)
“ If you want to take that cruise, and you are healthy, take that cruise”
Anthony Fauci, March 9
“So, taking age and preexisting conditions into account, there is an extremely high number of people—at least 42%—whose freedom you would curtail so that those at lower risk could continue their lives of indulgence.”
THe single greatest factor in the death rate is age. Just look at the ages of those dying, or said to be dying from China Virus and you will see a full 80% are age 65 and up.
My point was there was NEVER a need to shut down the economy. We have all been played and it couldn’t be more obvious.
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Sex-Age-and-S/9bhg-hcku
It’s supposed to be “the data ARE in.” If we can’t trust them on grammar, why should we trust them on anything else?
How many in NY and NJ watch Fox News? Maybe your Gov should have kept it out of the Rest Homes rather than cry about respirators?
OMG could they sink any lower!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In early March, it looked like it was probably safe to take a cruise.
I have kept daily case numbers since March 13. On that date, there was a total of 137,445 Covid-19 cases—less than 0.002% of the total world population. Versus today, when cases have reached 10,154,984, or 0.13% of the population. Your chance of catching Covid-19 is almost 74 times as high now as it was in mid March.
Good job, Marvinl. Pointing out those key phrases is a very good way of highlighting bias.
In fact, somebody could collect these journalist “wink, wink” phrases and come up with an objective analysis of any fake news story. A Fake News score could be calculated.
And to be fair, you would compare stories from all sources.
With false stories being the norm, it’s very hard to determine definite true or false. But the words themselves and past history of a writer would give you a good indication of bias.
For example, part of the analysis would note that “right wing sources” is a code word for having no reliable source at all.
You’ve got a guy like Michael Bloomberg who owns one of the biggest news wire services, imagine the technology his company has to at least semi-automate the production of phony news stories peppered with these common phrases.
Makes for a terrible read by the way.
This ugly ole cow needs to put her mask on. Inside her fugly mouth.
So the “numbers are in”, science now shows”, its a clinical fact”, But as usual there is not ONE scrap of even pretend actual data set or any actual SCIENCE.
Liberals think you just st the word “Science” abd that alone constitutes undeniable truth.
Two, and perhaps even more importantly, the MSM is "promoting" the alleged pandemic and all the anti-liberty measures being taken as a consequence. If the MSM says covid-19 is a problem, then I'm sure it is not. I am far more concerned about how easily manipulated the people are, how quickly we gave up liberties our forefathers fought and died to secure, and how we're letting wanna be dictators and very real fascists send their minions out around the country to destroy our culture and heritage. That's the real problem here and now.
Actually, the corrupt media encouraged the rioting by tens of thousands of kids, and that is what caused the spread.
That chart you linked is just the number of deaths from various causes, but does not give the death rate—the proportion of people who die of the illness as a percentage of all who have had the illness.
Yes, a proportionately higher number of people over age 60 die from Covid-19 than people under that age. That does not change the fact that even at younger ages, the only age group in which Covid-19 is less likely to cause death than influenza is people age 19 and below. (This is actually skewed a little by the fact that influenza preferentially kills those less than 2 and over age 65. So Covid-19 is actually more dangerous to anyone age 20 and up than a simple comparison to the influenza death rate shows.)
The other issue that I have not focused on as much is the potential for long-term disability resulting from Covid-19.
Although there is limited data so far, there are historical records from the similar viruses SARS and MERS showing that some people never fully recovered from the effects. Covid-19 (I don’t use the term SARS-2, since I think it is confusing) affects multiple organs. It attacks the heart, kidneys, neurological system, testes, and blood systems in addition to the lungs. Once a virus attacks a cell, that cell no longer performs its physiological functions and is permanently lost; tissue damage results when a large number of cells have been destroyed in that tissue. How well the tissue recovers after the infection depends on the ability of stem cells to replace the lost cells, and this function varies by organ system.
So, while healthy young people are more likely to survive, they are not immune to potential long-term consequences of infection. And this translates to increased long-term health care costs.
My whole point about singling out people most at risk and imprisoning them so as not to inconvenience people at lower risk is about feasibility. While it might sound superficially nice to “protect” those most at risk, it is not very doable. In that respect, it has a lot in common with the old fable about the mice and their plan to bell the cat. It sounds good, until you start thinking about the details. I don’t know your age, but are you really willing to accept permanent imprisonment once you reach a certain age, because society at large decided that it was okay to allow Covid-19 to become endemic because eradicating it was too much of a challenge? Your retirement should be your golden years, where you get to do all of those things you never had time for when you were working. It should not become a prison sentence.
“that the Chinese government created the virus in a lab, and that government health agencies were exaggerating the dangers in the hopes of damaging Trump politically”
SO FOX NEWS (SOME OF IT) WAS ACCURATE?
“Trump referred to “politicizing” of the coronavirus by Democrats as “their new hoax.” He did not refer to the coronavirus itself as a hoax.Throughout his speech, Trump reiterated that his administration is taking the threat of the coronavirus seriously."
Furthermore, we have DOZENS of instances of Democrat media AND Democrat politicians all farting around FOR MONTHS about hugging people from Wuhan at the Chinese New Year to show “defiance!” to "racist Trump!" and then later claiming the virus wasn't dangerous.
Skim the pics but be sure and note the dates.
And then of course we have Cuomo, not satisfied to killing a 100,000 babies a year in NY, he decides to kill nearly 12,000 elderly in nursing homes, refusing to use the hundreds of available beds at the Javits Center and the Navy Hospital Ship in NY harbor, because, "TRUMP!"
IMHO thats what this is all about. Rumors of Cuomo being called to a Senate hearing on how he killed all those seniors, that would seriously ding him politically now in case Biden strokes out before the election, and even after.
So they are going to hammer Trump on the virus with lies the way they hammered him on Russia when THEY were the ones connected to Russia and Ukraine...
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