Media Coverage of COVID -19

[brad465]

The BBC actually have a landing page story which leads with a story critical of what's happened, about a terminally ill cancer patient who expects this to be their last Christmas and may not even see next summer. It's a sad story, but at least there is some coverage of the opposing perspective in all this:

'I won't have next summer, let alone next Christmas'

Three people tell BBC News how the new Christmas coronavirus rules will affect them.

www.bbc.co.uk

The last-minute change to Covid rules for Christmas has affected millions.

Large parts of south-east England will not have the rules relaxed at all, and the rest of England, Scotland and Wales will see them relaxed for just Christmas Day.

For some people, this news is an inconvenience. For others, it is a disaster.

For Lesley Nelson, who has terminal cancer, it is simply "not fair".

"I am terminally ill," she said. "This is likely to be my last Christmas."

"I've spent the last two Christmases in hospital. I have a small family. We had planned a quiet Christmas as normal - just me, my two sons, my mum and my sister.

"They are all taking care not to mix for the week before. I only see my sister two or three times a year, so this Christmas is important."

(There are also two other opinions, one criticising the timing of the announcement in relation to a wedding planned, and another supporting the idea of not meeting up with others)

 

[Andyh82]

I don’t know why people keep flagging up stories like this as if it shows the wind is turning. There are always stories like this but they only come out after the announcement has happened.

We only heard how they were under pressure to cancel Christmas, up until they did, which is when the stories disagreeing with it then come out.

They always find someone the wrong side of either a time or geographic boundary, they could have brought in restrictions to start three weeks next Wednesday and they’d have run a story on how it has ruined something happening three weeks on Thursday.

 

[DB]

I don’t know why people keep flagging up stories like this as if it shows the wind is turning. There are always stories like this but they only come out after the announcement has happened.

We only heard how they were under pressure to cancel Christmas, up until they did, which is when the stories disagreeing with it then come out.

Harder for the media to disagree with something until they know what they are disagreeing with!

 

[Andyh82]

Harder for the media to disagree with something until they know what they are disagreeing with!

Suggestions to reduce the Christmas mixing have been around for weeks, no human interest stories demanding it was kept have been seen until tonight.

 

[DB]

Suggestions to reduce the Christmas mixing have been around for weeks, no human interest stories demanding it was kept have been seen until tonight.

Probably they thought that even Johnson wouldn't ho as far as he has.

 

[Bantamzen]

Digital Spy seem to think that Whitty & Vallance are actually trustworthy. I said on a thread that they are frauds for the overblown figures and this was the reponse. Are they always like this? (I don’t usually do the politics forum).

Digital Spy forums are the tech world's equivalent to Mumsnet.

 

[Class 33]

Digital Spy seem to think that Whitty & Vallance are actually trustworthy. I said on a thread that they are frauds for the overblown figures and this was the reponse. Are they always like this? (I don’t usually do the politics forum).

I read one posting on there yesterday from someone saying there should be a tough 6 months full national lockdown! Everything to be closed, strict stay at home orders, not even allowed out for shopping, excersise, nothing. Absolute cretin! If that happened, the whole economy would collapse, and there'd be large volumes of people committing suicide unable to take this.

 

[kristiang85]

I read one posting on there yesterday from someone saying there should be a tough 6 months full national lockdown! Everything to be closed, strict stay at home orders, not even allowed out for shopping, excersise, nothing. Absolute cretin! If that happened, the whole economy would collapse, and there'd be large volumes of people committing suicide unable to take this.

Well this is basically what Argentina did, and look how it worked out for them...

I'm glad I don't look at those forums, I'd probably end up throwing my laptop out of the window.

 

[DustyBin]

I read one posting on there yesterday from someone saying there should be a tough 6 months full national lockdown! Everything to be closed, strict stay at home orders, not even allowed out for shopping, excersise, nothing. Absolute cretin! If that happened, the whole economy would collapse, and there'd be large volumes of people committing suicide unable to take this.

Some people’s quality of life is so poor they have nothing to lose from lockdowns and economic collapse (they probably do in reality but they can’t see it). It’s sad really, but we should consider ourselves fortunate that we’re not like them.

 

[Yew]

I read one posting on there yesterday from someone saying there should be a tough 6 months full national lockdown! Everything to be closed, strict stay at home orders, not even allowed out for shopping, excersise, nothing. Absolute cretin! If that happened, the whole economy would collapse, and there'd be large volumes of people committing suicide unable to take this.

Indeed, there's been a outbreak of 'Zero Covid" on my facebook feed.

 

[SS4]

The BBC actually have a landing page story which leads with a story critical of what's happened, about a terminally ill cancer patient who expects this to be their last Christmas and may not even see next summer. It's a sad story, but at least there is some coverage of the opposing perspective in all this:

'I won't have next summer, let alone next Christmas'

Three people tell BBC News how the new Christmas coronavirus rules will affect them.

www.bbc.co.uk

(There are also two other opinions, one criticising the timing of the announcement in relation to a wedding planned, and another supporting the idea of not meeting up with others)

There's still nothing critical in there though, these stories only give the illusion of a balanced press when drinking from the government teat like a newborn puppy. The human interest stories (which I maintain have no place on the news) are only there to toy with emotions.

Yet for all the fluff there is nothing else being reported on meaning all kinds of shady things can fly under the radar

 

[adc82140]

There are a lot of similar stories the BBC live feed today as well. Stories of inconsolable kids. Stories of people spending Christmas alone. I've said all along that the British public will tolerate a lot, but mess with their Christmas plans at your peril.

 

[DB]

There are a lot of similar stories the BBC live feed today as well. Stories of inconsolable kids. Stories of people spending Christmas alone. I've said all along that the British public will tolerate a lot, but mess with their Christmas plans at your peril.

And to do it at the last minute is only going to make things worse.

The trouble is, those whose answer to everything is 'more restrictions' are the ones who are constantly shouting on social media, and doing Yougov surveys, so the government may think that they have general public support. The reality seems to be somewhat different - as is obvious by the number of people out and about compared to earlier in the year.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

Sky News were yesterday pushing the ‘long covid’ narrative quite hard. Apparently 1 in 10 people with covid will suffer from ‘long covid’ with all kinds of terrifying outcomes including partial paralysis.... Where they got that statistic from I’ve no idea. They had one ‘long covid’ sufferer on who has been unable to work since May, when she claims to have caught it for the second time which seems unlikely in itself (the first time was in March apparently). Another women explained how she gets out of breath walking her dog, with images of her waking her dog through a park whilst wearing a mask.... I had to laugh at the irony!

Sky News do unintentional irony on their app, too:

Two unrelated stories, the second not about coronavirus. The headlines are
Extra Police Deployed To Stop Non-Essential Tier 4 Trips After Londoners Flee Capital
and
Nothing To Live For If You Don’t Have Freedom

(I confess to having clicked on the video, thinking it was going to be a long-overdue airing of the frustration felt by many at the restrictions on our daily lives...)

 

[kez19]

from earlier on Sky News site:

COVID-19: 'This is deadly serious' - New coronavirus variant 'out of control', health secretary warns

Everyone, especially Tier 4 areas, needs to be behave as if they have the virus to get it back under control, says Matt Hancock.

news.sky.com

the first part made me chuckle... lecture the public meanwhile those in charge.....

COVID-19: 'This is deadly serious' - New coronavirus variant 'out of control', health secretary warns​

Everyone, especially Tier 4 areas, needs to be behave as if they have the virus to get it back under control, says Matt Hancock.
he new strain of COVID-19 is out of control and people need to behave as if they already have the virus, especially in the new Tier 4 areas of England, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has warned.

The five-day Christmas bubble period has been reduced to just Christmas Day for England, Wales and Scotland - and scrapped completely for areas in England under new Tier 4 rules - but remains in Northern Ireland.



The fresh tough coronavirus measures - which MPs will vote on in January - affect those in London, most of the South East, and parts of eastern England.

Sky News update:

COVID-19: How worried should we be about the threat of the new strain?

The government's own advisory group warns the R number could be as high as 0.93 - which is why Christmas had to be cancelled.

news.sky.com

When the prime minister announced his Tier 4 restrictions, he warned this new variant could increase the R value by more than 0.4.

That in itself is worrying. But now, newly-released minutes from the government's own virus advisory group NERVTAG shows that threat could be significantly higher.



It has calculated the new variant might have driven the R value up by as much as 0.93.

There are lots of variables and we do not have access to all the data. And the R value is a range. It represents the average number of people each person with COVID goes on to infect.
We are told, too, that it is 70% more transmissible. This variant of the coronavirus has mutated, as all viruses do, to increase its own survival rate. The more people it can infect, the longer it will live.


This variant has a name: VUI-202012/01. And it is going to be a challenge trying to contain it.
The government's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty have been quick to reassure us that this variant does not appear to be any more deadly or make its infected hosts any sicker.

That's good. But the original virus already has the power to kill or make people very sick. Now this variant has shown it can spread that threat much faster.

So the variant is not as deadly as previously thought but still lets all go nuts and lockdown once more (all parts of UK)

 

[Andyh82]

The media over the last few days:

Don't panic buy
Don't panic buy
The supermarkets have enough stock

when they really mean

Please panic buy, and if you do, make sure you take a video of it happening and a picture of some empty shelves whilst you are there

 

[Richard Scott]

Item on recent news about increase in mental health cases in Southmead hospital in Bristol, sad but are we surprised? Doctors saying that this is only going to get worse. Again, what have many of us been saying?

 

[Bertie the bus]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...l-in-tier-2-areas-warns-scientist/ar-BB1c8GKv

Coronavirus transmission is “out of control” in Tier 2 areas and another national lockdown is needed, a scientist has warned.

Christina Pagel, a mathematician and professor of operational research at University College London, said the situation is so dire that the whole of England should be placed in Tier 4 immediately.

Who next, a metallurgist or a holding a séance and contacting the spirit of David Bellamy?

 

[Domh245]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...l-in-tier-2-areas-warns-scientist/ar-BB1c8GKv



Who next, a metallurgist or a holding a séance and contacting the spirit of David Bellamy?

To be fair to Prof Pagel, MSN have done her a disservice by failing to mention that the "operational research" she works in is clinical. To claim that she's just "a mathematician" is misleading, although by all means criticism of pandemic modelling is fair game (Ferguson, for example..)

Her bio

 

[Richard Scott]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

What's the mathematical conclusion about what this will achieve? It's all well and good saying things aren't going well but we have seen before lockdowns just delay the inevitable.

 

[NorthOxonian]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...l-in-tier-2-areas-warns-scientist/ar-BB1c8GKv



Who next, a metallurgist or a holding a séance and contacting the spirit of David Bellamy?

In fairness, most of the modelling relies on the kinds of differential equations which plenty of mathematicians study day in, day out. One of my second year degree modules was actually on pandemic spread, so it's not as unlikely a fit as you might think.

 

[Class 33]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...l-in-tier-2-areas-warns-scientist/ar-BB1c8GKv



Who next, a metallurgist or a holding a séance and contacting the spirit of David Bellamy?

Am sick of all these "experts" or "scientists" or "former government advisors" or whatever on the news saying why there needs to an immediate national lockdown. I was watching the ITV News at 6:30 earlier, and then there was some consultant anaesthetist woman on there saying the only option is that there needs to be an immediate national lockdown. I then immediately switched off! Time and time again we keep seeing this. Why is the mainstream media so one sided with this? Why for example do they also not have people on there saying there should certainly not be any further national lockdowns due to such reasons as the devestating effect it will have on the economy and the mental health of the nation?

 

[Bertie the bus]

In fairness, most of the modelling relies on the kinds of differential equations which plenty of mathematicians study day in, day out. One of my second year degree modules was actually on pandemic spread, so it's not as unlikely a fit as you might think.

Studying and predicting are important tasks and the results are required by those making decisions but it doesn’t mean the people carrying out those tasks are qualified to dictate policy.

 

[kez19]

Am sick of all these "experts" or "scientists" or "former government advisors" or whatever on the news saying why there needs to an immediate national lockdown. I was watching the ITV News at 6:30 earlier, and then there was some consultant anaesthetist woman on there saying there needs to be an immediate national lockdown. I then immediately switched off! Why is the mainstream media so one sided with this? Why for example do they also not have people on there saying there should certainly not be any further national lockdowns due to such reasons as the devestating effect it will have on the economy and the mental health of the nation?

Thats why I question it, if we are to take this in all seriousness then who is driving it? Is it a) politicians b) scientists ie SAGE c) media or d) all mentioned

I go with D but it seems that the media are taking it further, I think on the other does the media forget that there is TWO sides to a story than just the one thats pumped out?

As well as that on the other when things start coming out about it all, who do we think will then go on the attack? Oh look media!

I found this:

How should you talk to friends and relatives who believe conspiracy theories?

Advice from experts and those who used to believe conspiracy theories about how to avoid rows this festive season.

www.bbc.co.uk

As your uncle passes the roast potatoes, he casually mentions that a coronavirus vaccine will be used to inject microchips into our bodies to track us.
Or maybe it's that point when a friend, after a couple of pints, starts talking about how Covid-19 "doesn't exist". Or when pudding is ruined as a long-lost cousin starts spinning lurid tales about QAnon and elite Satanists eating babies.
The recent rules changes have upended holiday plans for many of us, but you still may find yourself grappling with such situations over the next few days - talking not about legitimate political questions and debates, but outlandish plots and fictions.

I know this has popped up but I remember a few weeks ago on the World Service they had a documentary speaking about a son dismissing his mum over theories (I was surprised it was broadcast), I tried looking on BBC Sounds so no idea what it was called.

If I am honest I use to trust the BBC even STV (for my area) but all of the media outlets just love this and I hate it but I just think the media just love all this with whats going on, so as I said before hopefully everything will in turn backfire on the whole lot of them.

 

[NorthOxonian]

Studying and predicting are important tasks and the results are required by those making decisions but it doesn’t mean the people carrying out those tasks are qualified to dictate policy.

Oh absolutely, you need a holistic view to make policy. And any mathematical model is only as good as the assumptions you make when devising it - and the data you feed into it.

 

[Bantamzen]

The media are getting so desperate to find scientists who want an immediate nationwide lockdown they have now turned to mathematicians.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/ukne...l-in-tier-2-areas-warns-scientist/ar-BB1c8GKv



Who next, a metallurgist or a holding a séance and contacting the spirit of David Bellamy?

Ooooh, ooooh, I know.....

"According to Karen of Facebook....."

(Sorry mods, I'm off to sit in the naughty corner)

 

[SS4]

National Lockdown Needed! But don't even think about asking why or asking for it to be devolved to English regions.

Protect the NHS - but don't mention a decade of underfunding.

Praise to keyworkers - but don't mention their pay and conditions or ask how we can improve them outside of vapid clapping.


I really hope that this will make more and more people switch off the news - I wonder how long it'll take for future viewers to see this as propaganda akin to how we see wartime "news". Remember their goal is profit, not accuracy

 

[Scotrail12]

For all that I've been praising TalkRadio - Dan Wootton has gone on his holidays and the awful James Max is filling in who is a very strong locktivist - apparently wants army on the streets and started his show with a full rant about people not wearing masks and how they should be enforced by police and have the public shaming those who don't wear them. I respect his right to an opinion but surely the producers knew that his views would alienate Dan's viewers given that Dan always criticises the government views? I'm quite annoyed actually since it's the only "safe space" of the radio/news outlets where they can actually discuss views which aren't all pro government.

 

[brad465]

I'd say actually that it's an internet-driven pandemic - social media and online news have both been pushing up the levels of paranoia, and the internet makes restrictions possible, as working and shopping from home is practical for many now.

Agree that 15 years ago this is unlikely to have happened - it's actually not a lot worst statistically than a couple of bad flu years in the late 1990s, which I didn't even realise had been so bad until looking at the stats recently, so clearly it wasn't much in the public eye at the time.

Taken from the Tier 4 thread but I think is relevant here: I agree about the level of media access and online behaviour influencing our response. However is there any way we can actually tame this in future? It first has to be recognised as a driver in our response, which I feel a public inquiry might not, then checks/regulations have to be done in a way that allows control but isn't seen as counter-productive censorship.

What Covid has definitely shown, for those who think about it hard enough, is there are areas of technology that may have advanced too much for our own good: media is a very key player, but we could argue also in the realms of mass testing for a specific illness has fuelled the heavy fixation on Covid without considering other concerns, and our belief that we can eliminate this via a rapid trialling, production and rollout of vaccines.

 

[Skimpot flyer]

I see Dr Zubaida Hague is arguing for the whole of England to be in Tier 4. It’s not entirely clear if she is on the official SAGE committee or the Independent SAGE, though

The whole of England should be in Tier 4 Sage expert warns

SAGE scientist Dr Zubaida Haque today questioned why the government haven't placed the whole country under the toughest restrictions to save lives.

www.dailymail.co.uk