5 ms·

I think it's both. It was a pandemic for many places, peoples, and nations, but because of rampant media over-hype, speculation, and just plain bad reporting, i

I think it's both. It was a pandemic for many places, peoples, and nations, but because of rampant media over-hype, speculation, and just plain bad reporting, it gave the impression of being far worse than it might actually have been. There is also the justification that the media's hype made it into more of a "scare-demic" as seems to be the case for the media during election years. 2004: Sars 2008: Bird flu 2010: Swine flu 2012: mers 2014: Ebola 2016: Zika 2018: Ebola again 2020: COVID-19 Yes, you will find SNOPES[0] and all sorts of sources that will say these existed prior to the elections. My point is: These outbreaks/pandemics/etc. may have never risen to the level of such mass hysteria had it not been for the media's sophistic instigation.[1.] [0.]https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coronavirus-meme/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/coronavirus-meme/

pwinnski 6y ago
More than 650,000 people have died so far around the world, more than 150,000 people have died in the United States. This is despite a massive economy-rocking effort to "flatten the curve" and an unprecedented-in-100-years effort to mask up and isolate and avoid interacting with other people. Blaming "media" for any part of this, or for exaggerating its horrors, seems so wrong-headed it's unclear where to begin. You tout a conspiracy theory even while linking to Snopes demonstrating that said theory is nonsense. I hope that neither you nor anyone you love ends up fighting for their life again COVID-19. Wear a mask, and stay home.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > This is despite a massive economy-rocking effort to "flatten the curve" In the US, that was largely a complete failure because everywhere started reopening because New York’s case numbers were going down while the rest of the country was going up, and everyone declared “mission accomplished”.
- Simulacra 6y ago
  650,000 out of a global population? More people have died from seasonal flu every year. You're taking this way too personally, it's not political argument. I urge you to pull back and reconsider your emotions.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > 650,000 out of a global population? More people have died from seasonal flu every year No, more people don't die every year from seasonal flu: “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”
    - Simulacra 6y ago
      I was close.
      - dragonwriter 6y ago
        No, the usually usual annual range of total flu deaths being 250k-500k doesn't make a claim that every year more than 650k die from that cause close to being correct. 650k is not even close to being less than 250k.
      - slenk 6y ago
        So now that you have learned you are wrong, are you going to change your preaching on how its not as bad as a flu?
      - flukus 6y ago
        We're only 6 months through the year and it took "massive economy-rocking" mitigation efforts to keep it that low. You're nowhere near close.
      - pwinnski 6y ago
        COVID-19 is so far an entire order of magnitude ahead of flu for the season, and COVID-19 is still going strong. You could hardly be farther from correct! In the US, the CDC recorded 15,620[0] deaths due to flu for the last season. We are already ten times that for COVID-19 and still losing people every day. They extrapolate from the 15,620 confirmed deaths that many more deaths are due to the flu but not tested as such, and so they estimate a range that centers around 42,000 for the last year. That range is still less than one-third of COVID-19's known minimum, and a check of "excess death" figures suggests that next year, the CDC will have a similar statistical model suggesting deaths are several times higher than we know right now. Again, you are off by anywhere from 10 to 30 times. [0] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-...

pwinnski 6y ago

More than 650,000 people have died so far around the world, more than 150,000 people have died in the United States. This is despite a massive economy-rocking effort to "flatten the curve" and an unprecedented-in-100-years effort to mask up and isolate and avoid interacting with other people. Blaming "media" for any part of this, or for exaggerating its horrors, seems so wrong-headed it's unclear where to begin. You tout a conspiracy theory even while linking to Snopes demonstrating that said theory is nonsense. I hope that neither you nor anyone you love ends up fighting for their life again COVID-19. Wear a mask, and stay home.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> This is despite a massive economy-rocking effort to "flatten the curve" In the US, that was largely a complete failure because everywhere started reopening because New York’s case numbers were going down while the rest of the country was going up, and everyone declared “mission accomplished”.
Simulacra 6y ago
650,000 out of a global population? More people have died from seasonal flu every year. You're taking this way too personally, it's not political argument. I urge you to pull back and reconsider your emotions.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > 650,000 out of a global population? More people have died from seasonal flu every year No, more people don't die every year from seasonal flu: “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”
  - Simulacra 6y ago
    I was close.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      No, the usually usual annual range of total flu deaths being 250k-500k doesn't make a claim that every year more than 650k die from that cause close to being correct. 650k is not even close to being less than 250k.
    - slenk 6y ago
      So now that you have learned you are wrong, are you going to change your preaching on how its not as bad as a flu?
    - flukus 6y ago
      We're only 6 months through the year and it took "massive economy-rocking" mitigation efforts to keep it that low. You're nowhere near close.
    - pwinnski 6y ago
      COVID-19 is so far an entire order of magnitude ahead of flu for the season, and COVID-19 is still going strong. You could hardly be farther from correct! In the US, the CDC recorded 15,620[0] deaths due to flu for the last season. We are already ten times that for COVID-19 and still losing people every day. They extrapolate from the 15,620 confirmed deaths that many more deaths are due to the flu but not tested as such, and so they estimate a range that centers around 42,000 for the last year. That range is still less than one-third of COVID-19's known minimum, and a check of "excess death" figures suggests that next year, the CDC will have a similar statistical model suggesting deaths are several times higher than we know right now. Again, you are off by anywhere from 10 to 30 times. [0] https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-...