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Why is there such a force of propoganda surrounding Corona trying to make everyone feel like things are worse than they are? I've noticed it too.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago
Because there's an election in just over two months. And if the US blew handling Covid, that reflects badly on the president. So you have insane levels of propaganda (from both sides, plus foreign meddling), trying to influence how you see Trump's performance as a leader.
- najarvg 6y ago
  Or it could be because US has 4% of the world population but 25% of the coronavirus cases? With supposedly the best brain trust and the biggest economy of the world, we were maybe expected to do better but landed up performing worse than other developed nations that have at least used this time to establish the infrastructure to conduct limited local openings or closings as needed? Maybe we really blew handling covid because of excessive political interference and amplification of fringe conspiracy theories?
  - AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    That could be true. But it doesn't answer why there is such a force of propaganda surrounding Covid. If what you said is true, it should be plainly reported and clearly understood (fringe conspiracy theories aside). Instead, we've got this blizzard of people trying to make it very hard to see anything objectively. Why? (Which, restated, is nickthemagicman's question.)
  - makomk 6y ago
    Yeah, that's one of the other standard lines being pushed by the press to convince everyone that the US is uniquely failing. It's a very effective talking point. The trouble is, it makes no sense to compare those two numbers because most of the world's population is in places that don't have widespread access to medical care or coronavirus testing, and we know that there have been major outbreaks in pretty much all of those areas. (For instance, antibody testing on a sample of residents suggests about half the population of Mumbai's main slums had caught Covid-19 as of a couple of months or so ago. That's quite a lot of people which really weren't captured by the official case count - and there have also been outbreaks throughout India, including more recently in rural areas, in Africa, South America, Mexico...) The other problem is that even within Europe, the really major outbreaks happened in countries which also didn't have widespread coronavirus testing at the time. For the most part they were usually only testing people who ended up being hospitalized. So the total death counts are probably reasonably accurate, but case counts are basically meaningless even for those outbreaks. (Which causes some problems when comparing the current, somewhat alarming case counts in many European countries with the initial wave.)
  - JoshuaDavid 6y ago
    I'm not going to defend US policy in terms of COVID handling, but comparing positive test numbers in the US to positive test numbers in the rest of the world mostly tells you about testing rates. The US has 22% of the total (verified) global COVID-19 deaths. Most deaths occur in those aged 65 or above. 9% of the global population (702M people) is over 65. 17% of the US population (56M people) is over 65. So the US has 8% of the population over 65 but 22% of the COVID deaths - it's still almost a factor of 3, so definitely not just reporting artifacts, but it's not a factor of 6+ either in terms of how the US is doing vs how you would expect.
natrik 6y ago
I've noticed it especially on small Reddit communities for cities where constant narrative shifting has occurred: from flattening the curve and potential high death rates to we don't know the side effects of the virus and potential future complications.
- gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
  > we don't know the side effects of the virus and potential future complications It’s fun to see the rhetorical positions nowadays: pick an argument that doesn’t require evidence and can’t be disproved. You’re always right! It’s also a wet dream for people with anxiety and hypochondria - say the side effects are a complete wildcard and people assume the worst case scenario.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tynpeddler 6y ago
We shut down the entire world and it killed over 100,000 in the US alone in 3 months. There's no suspicious conspiracy surrounding Covid19, it really is a very infectious and capable of killing a lot more than it already has.
- nickthemagicman 6y ago
  It's the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. And no one has ever shut down a fast food restaurant to prevent the propagation of heart disease. It's bad but it's being severely over exaggerated.
  - ende 6y ago
    Are you really this stupid?
  - ChrisGranger 6y ago
    Call me when cheeseburgers become contagious.
  - andrei_says_ 6y ago
    Nice job repeating snappy talking points but this comparison is malicious, unfounded and indicates a bad faith argument.
    - nickthemagicman 6y ago
      Just doesn't make sense to me that we dont ban cigarettes, we don't ban fast food restaurants... Yet we shut down the entire economy and all of human life as we know it for something with less of the death rate than both of those illnesses. And there's mountains of scientific evidence supporting those directly lead to their respective ailments.
      - drwiggly 6y ago
        How many of those factors spread on accident vs personal choice? ~300,000,00 in the US ~2% death rate .. 6,000,000? Is that enough bodies?

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

Because there's an election in just over two months. And if the US blew handling Covid, that reflects badly on the president. So you have insane levels of propaganda (from both sides, plus foreign meddling), trying to influence how you see Trump's performance as a leader.

najarvg 6y ago
Or it could be because US has 4% of the world population but 25% of the coronavirus cases? With supposedly the best brain trust and the biggest economy of the world, we were maybe expected to do better but landed up performing worse than other developed nations that have at least used this time to establish the infrastructure to conduct limited local openings or closings as needed? Maybe we really blew handling covid because of excessive political interference and amplification of fringe conspiracy theories?
- AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  That could be true. But it doesn't answer why there is such a force of propaganda surrounding Covid. If what you said is true, it should be plainly reported and clearly understood (fringe conspiracy theories aside). Instead, we've got this blizzard of people trying to make it very hard to see anything objectively. Why? (Which, restated, is nickthemagicman's question.)
- makomk 6y ago
  Yeah, that's one of the other standard lines being pushed by the press to convince everyone that the US is uniquely failing. It's a very effective talking point. The trouble is, it makes no sense to compare those two numbers because most of the world's population is in places that don't have widespread access to medical care or coronavirus testing, and we know that there have been major outbreaks in pretty much all of those areas. (For instance, antibody testing on a sample of residents suggests about half the population of Mumbai's main slums had caught Covid-19 as of a couple of months or so ago. That's quite a lot of people which really weren't captured by the official case count - and there have also been outbreaks throughout India, including more recently in rural areas, in Africa, South America, Mexico...) The other problem is that even within Europe, the really major outbreaks happened in countries which also didn't have widespread coronavirus testing at the time. For the most part they were usually only testing people who ended up being hospitalized. So the total death counts are probably reasonably accurate, but case counts are basically meaningless even for those outbreaks. (Which causes some problems when comparing the current, somewhat alarming case counts in many European countries with the initial wave.)
- JoshuaDavid 6y ago
  I'm not going to defend US policy in terms of COVID handling, but comparing positive test numbers in the US to positive test numbers in the rest of the world mostly tells you about testing rates. The US has 22% of the total (verified) global COVID-19 deaths. Most deaths occur in those aged 65 or above. 9% of the global population (702M people) is over 65. 17% of the US population (56M people) is over 65. So the US has 8% of the population over 65 but 22% of the COVID deaths - it's still almost a factor of 3, so definitely not just reporting artifacts, but it's not a factor of 6+ either in terms of how the US is doing vs how you would expect.

natrik 6y ago

I've noticed it especially on small Reddit communities for cities where constant narrative shifting has occurred: from flattening the curve and potential high death rates to we don't know the side effects of the virus and potential future complications.

gnusty_gnurc 6y ago
> we don't know the side effects of the virus and potential future complications It’s fun to see the rhetorical positions nowadays: pick an argument that doesn’t require evidence and can’t be disproved. You’re always right! It’s also a wet dream for people with anxiety and hypochondria - say the side effects are a complete wildcard and people assume the worst case scenario.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

tynpeddler 6y ago

We shut down the entire world and it killed over 100,000 in the US alone in 3 months. There's no suspicious conspiracy surrounding Covid19, it really is a very infectious and capable of killing a lot more than it already has.

nickthemagicman 6y ago
It's the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. And no one has ever shut down a fast food restaurant to prevent the propagation of heart disease. It's bad but it's being severely over exaggerated.
- ende 6y ago
  Are you really this stupid?
- ChrisGranger 6y ago
  Call me when cheeseburgers become contagious.
- andrei_says_ 6y ago
  Nice job repeating snappy talking points but this comparison is malicious, unfounded and indicates a bad faith argument.
  - nickthemagicman 6y ago
    Just doesn't make sense to me that we dont ban cigarettes, we don't ban fast food restaurants... Yet we shut down the entire economy and all of human life as we know it for something with less of the death rate than both of those illnesses. And there's mountains of scientific evidence supporting those directly lead to their respective ailments.
    - drwiggly 6y ago
      How many of those factors spread on accident vs personal choice? ~300,000,00 in the US ~2% death rate .. 6,000,000? Is that enough bodies?