5 ms·

Does pg never watch the news? Or did he just forget that "no worse than the flu" was the general tone until late February in pretty much all 'western' media and

Does pg never watch the news? Or did he just forget that "no worse than the flu" was the general tone until late February in pretty much all 'western' media and even MDs? E.g. https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus-worse-than-flu https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronav... https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/the-fear-of-the-corona-virus-and-the-reality-of-the-flu https://www.mdmag.com/medical-news/the-fear-of-the-corona-vi... (kudos for correcting/updating later...) Seems a bit one-sided to get so excited about wrong predictions by the Fox/alt-right/MAGA bubble on account of one viral video.

mehrdadn 7y ago
Since this is about watching the news, it'd be nice if you could share clips from (say) CNN or MSNBC carrying a similar message, confidence, and tone.
- lazyjones 7y ago
  Here's the Guardian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aerq4byr7ps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aerq4byr7ps ... just older people with underlying conditions dying ... etc.
  - mehrdadn 7y ago
    Are you joking? She says a heck of a lot more than that. Her tone is extremely cautious and she's extremely clear that we know very little about this virus, she's describing the current situation of who is dying rather than making baseless predictions about who will die in the future, and all she's saying in that one sentence is that for the current situation, "you have to put it into context". Meanwhile you have snarky Fox News folks spewing "the media mob is telling you the sky is falling down" and "at worst this is like the flu" and "this is the best time to fly" etc. And she even literally tells you "this one is scary..." and tries to explain what about it is scary. Are these glaring difference not obvious or do you just ignore everything except the 1 sentence you can cherry-pick out of context?
    - lazyjones 7y ago
      You should look at the video again. Her tone is calming and reassuring and she is saying it's scary because it is NEW. Are you deliberately trying to misinterpret it?
      - mehrdadn 7y ago
        No, I'm trying to point out everything you're ignoring, which fundamentally affects the meaning of the message coming across. Like right now when you just ignored the rest of my comment. I'm not gonna put more effort into this though, since it's clear you're not going to see what you don't intend to see.
        lazyjones 7y ago
        I'm only ignoring the fact that you're more obsessed with Fox News' well-known snarkiness and presentation than with the fact that at the time, considering Coronavirus relatively harmless was not a lie or even uncommon opinion among most media, all along the spectrum.
      - qqqwerty 7y ago
        This video was published on January 23rd. At that point, China had less than 1k confirmed cases and less than 30 deaths. I agree with the sibling commenter, this was a very reasoned and factual video, especially considering the information that was public at the time.
  - robocat 7y ago
    That is from Jan 23, 2020... when everyone was clueless as to the consequences so she didn’t predict those. Everything else is spot on, and it is still mostly older people with underlying conditions dying. She says the death rate is 2%: no pretending that it would be like a normal flu season. I just can’t see how you can cherry-pick a single thing out of that reporting to criticise, even given it was done on January 23rd!
paulgb 7y ago
There's a difference between health writers writing in nuanced tones about the unknowns back in February (and sure, they got some things wrong, but they were going on the best information at the time), and talking heads on TV going on nothing but their own self-confidence and prior political beliefs telling people they'd be fine.
maest 7y ago
Not "western", but "American". Both your sources are US based (and cite the CDC). The WHO has been warning about the coronavirus for ages.
- lazyjones 7y ago
  I live in Europe and can confirm that it was similar here. E.g. German state media quoting a head physician: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/schwabinger-chefarzt-corona-nicht-gefaehrlicher-als-influenza,RphX42Z https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/schwabinger-chefarzt-co... (literally saying in the title it's not more dangerous than the flu) Also, the WHO posted this on Twitter in January, draw your own conclusions: https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152
  - thombat 7y ago
    When WHO relayed the Chinese belief/hope of "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission" (Jan 14) there were only 40 identified cases, mostly with plausible links to the presumed origin at the market. It should be read as "widespread action not yet justified" rather than "no need to worry at all, ever"
- jshevek 7y ago
  The WHO emphasized the lack of evidence for human-human transmission on Jan 14.
  - s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
    And didn't confirm transmission until Jan 25th.
buboard 7y ago
There were sober voices on twitter, no neef to follow the mainstream. Thanks to @balajis, some of us were well prepared
jacquesm 7y ago
I don't know if he was watching the news or not but here on HN that was the predominant spirit and some incorrigibles still hold to that mantra.

mehrdadn 7y ago

Since this is about watching the news, it'd be nice if you could share clips from (say) CNN or MSNBC carrying a similar message, confidence, and tone.

lazyjones 7y ago
Here's the Guardian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aerq4byr7ps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aerq4byr7ps ... just older people with underlying conditions dying ... etc.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  Are you joking? She says a heck of a lot more than that. Her tone is extremely cautious and she's extremely clear that we know very little about this virus, she's describing the current situation of who is dying rather than making baseless predictions about who will die in the future, and all she's saying in that one sentence is that for the current situation, "you have to put it into context". Meanwhile you have snarky Fox News folks spewing "the media mob is telling you the sky is falling down" and "at worst this is like the flu" and "this is the best time to fly" etc. And she even literally tells you "this one is scary..." and tries to explain what about it is scary. Are these glaring difference not obvious or do you just ignore everything except the 1 sentence you can cherry-pick out of context?
  - lazyjones 7y ago
    You should look at the video again. Her tone is calming and reassuring and she is saying it's scary because it is NEW. Are you deliberately trying to misinterpret it?
    - mehrdadn 7y ago
      No, I'm trying to point out everything you're ignoring, which fundamentally affects the meaning of the message coming across. Like right now when you just ignored the rest of my comment. I'm not gonna put more effort into this though, since it's clear you're not going to see what you don't intend to see.
      - lazyjones 7y ago
        I'm only ignoring the fact that you're more obsessed with Fox News' well-known snarkiness and presentation than with the fact that at the time, considering Coronavirus relatively harmless was not a lie or even uncommon opinion among most media, all along the spectrum.
    - qqqwerty 7y ago
      This video was published on January 23rd. At that point, China had less than 1k confirmed cases and less than 30 deaths. I agree with the sibling commenter, this was a very reasoned and factual video, especially considering the information that was public at the time.
- robocat 7y ago
  That is from Jan 23, 2020... when everyone was clueless as to the consequences so she didn’t predict those. Everything else is spot on, and it is still mostly older people with underlying conditions dying. She says the death rate is 2%: no pretending that it would be like a normal flu season. I just can’t see how you can cherry-pick a single thing out of that reporting to criticise, even given it was done on January 23rd!

paulgb 7y ago

There's a difference between health writers writing in nuanced tones about the unknowns back in February (and sure, they got some things wrong, but they were going on the best information at the time), and talking heads on TV going on nothing but their own self-confidence and prior political beliefs telling people they'd be fine.

maest 7y ago

Not "western", but "American". Both your sources are US based (and cite the CDC). The WHO has been warning about the coronavirus for ages.

lazyjones 7y ago
I live in Europe and can confirm that it was similar here. E.g. German state media quoting a head physician: https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/schwabinger-chefarzt-corona-nicht-gefaehrlicher-als-influenza,RphX42Z https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/schwabinger-chefarzt-co... (literally saying in the title it's not more dangerous than the flu) Also, the WHO posted this on Twitter in January, draw your own conclusions: https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152 https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152
- thombat 7y ago
  When WHO relayed the Chinese belief/hope of "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission" (Jan 14) there were only 40 identified cases, mostly with plausible links to the presumed origin at the market. It should be read as "widespread action not yet justified" rather than "no need to worry at all, ever"
jshevek 7y ago
The WHO emphasized the lack of evidence for human-human transmission on Jan 14.
- s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
  And didn't confirm transmission until Jan 25th.

buboard 7y ago

There were sober voices on twitter, no neef to follow the mainstream. Thanks to @balajis, some of us were well prepared

jacquesm 7y ago

I don't know if he was watching the news or not but here on HN that was the predominant spirit and some incorrigibles still hold to that mantra.