Only this time, there is a wolf.
It occurred to me that a LOT of people didn't buy the fearmongering that the Media and (to a lesser extent) the Federal and Local governments) promulgated about this current "crisis".
Thing is, as long as I can remember, there have been warnings about lots of diseases....some were dire warnings of DOOM if we didn't follow some rules or other. The last major scare..."Swine Flu"... we were told the SAME THINGS as we were about this current "Coronavirus"....Tens of Hundreds of THOUSANDS! of people were gonna die, there wouldn't be any medical personnel to take care of the dying and we would't be able to burn the bodies in pits fast enough.....
Who remembers the millions dead from H1N1? From SARS?
None of us. So when the Real Thing (if this is it) came along, no one, at first believed it.
We had Heard "Wolf!!!....WOLF!!!" too many times. Most of us simply ignored the warnings. We had heard all the warnings before, and they had turned out to be.....nothing. Less than nothing.
And, while this time it IS serious, we are again being told that THIS time, we are all gonna die if we don't stay inside and refuse to interact with people for then NEXT 30 days.
Sadly, I thing many people still don't believe the government nor the media. They've lied to and overstated too many times....about many things. Too many things. (Lets not even look at "Global Warming" "Climate Change"...Or AIDS. Both were gonna wipe humanity from the face of the earth).
Look: These precautions are probably a good plan. In fact, lets say that they are necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But lets face it, even now the big 3 news media are telling us that there will be MILLIONS of dead. More sober projections say somewhere between 200,000 and 600,000. Not MILLIONS. Not multiple millions. So, again, in order to have something to talk about, the media destroys their credibility...and in doing so, they take the already mostly-not-believed Centers for Disease Control down with them.
Yes, this is a serious disease. Yes, it affects lots of folks. Yes, we all should take some precautions. Yes, we should limit our gatherings. But at what cost the hype, the fearmongering, the drive for ratings? The breathlessly dramatic recitation of the number of people sick and/or dying? No one in the media has pointed out that of the number of people presenting symptoms (not just "tested", but actually showing some symptoms....the percentage of people dying is still very low. You'd think, watching the national news, that this is the end of the world.And that is, again, another lie.
And because of the overly-hyped news, as people grow inured to the hype and the dramatic scenes from (a very few) hospitals and the ever increasing predictions of death for all, they will soon begin returning to their "normal" ways....because they simply don't believe the media even if this time there might be a kernel of truth to what they are telling us. People in the US will put up with some inconvenience. In fact, I believe they will sacrifice a LOT of comfort if they believe there is a good reason for it. But they have been lied to so often, for so long, by the media and the "authorities" that even if this time it is real, they won't believe it. And because they Don't Believe, when it becomes too inconvenient, they will cease to take precautions.
And therein lies a recipe for Bad Things to happen.
It occurred to me that a LOT of people didn't buy the fearmongering that the Media and (to a lesser extent) the Federal and Local governments) promulgated about this current "crisis".
Thing is, as long as I can remember, there have been warnings about lots of diseases....some were dire warnings of DOOM if we didn't follow some rules or other. The last major scare..."Swine Flu"... we were told the SAME THINGS as we were about this current "Coronavirus"....Tens of Hundreds of THOUSANDS! of people were gonna die, there wouldn't be any medical personnel to take care of the dying and we would't be able to burn the bodies in pits fast enough.....
Who remembers the millions dead from H1N1? From SARS?
None of us. So when the Real Thing (if this is it) came along, no one, at first believed it.
We had Heard "Wolf!!!....WOLF!!!" too many times. Most of us simply ignored the warnings. We had heard all the warnings before, and they had turned out to be.....nothing. Less than nothing.
And, while this time it IS serious, we are again being told that THIS time, we are all gonna die if we don't stay inside and refuse to interact with people for then NEXT 30 days.
Sadly, I thing many people still don't believe the government nor the media. They've lied to and overstated too many times....about many things. Too many things. (Lets not even look at "
Look: These precautions are probably a good plan. In fact, lets say that they are necessary to prevent the spread of Covid-19. But lets face it, even now the big 3 news media are telling us that there will be MILLIONS of dead. More sober projections say somewhere between 200,000 and 600,000. Not MILLIONS. Not multiple millions. So, again, in order to have something to talk about, the media destroys their credibility...and in doing so, they take the already mostly-not-believed Centers for Disease Control down with them.
Yes, this is a serious disease. Yes, it affects lots of folks. Yes, we all should take some precautions. Yes, we should limit our gatherings. But at what cost the hype, the fearmongering, the drive for ratings? The breathlessly dramatic recitation of the number of people sick and/or dying? No one in the media has pointed out that of the number of people presenting symptoms (not just "tested", but actually showing some symptoms....the percentage of people dying is still very low. You'd think, watching the national news, that this is the end of the world.And that is, again, another lie.
And because of the overly-hyped news, as people grow inured to the hype and the dramatic scenes from (a very few) hospitals and the ever increasing predictions of death for all, they will soon begin returning to their "normal" ways....because they simply don't believe the media even if this time there might be a kernel of truth to what they are telling us. People in the US will put up with some inconvenience. In fact, I believe they will sacrifice a LOT of comfort if they believe there is a good reason for it. But they have been lied to so often, for so long, by the media and the "authorities" that even if this time it is real, they won't believe it. And because they Don't Believe, when it becomes too inconvenient, they will cease to take precautions.
And therein lies a recipe for Bad Things to happen.
I've been using the "cry wolf" analogy for quite while now, and have also been saying "America has been lied to for so long by so many, its people now believe no one at all.
ReplyDelete...As trust dies, so does the society...
We can't trust the media at all any longer, and sadly, some of our health officials are in too deep (politically) with The World Health Org.
ReplyDeleteBelow - Jan 26, 2020: Archived, The Hill via MSN https: // archive.vn/uo5G3
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said Sunday the American public shouldn't worry about the coronavirus outbreak in China.
"It's a very, very low risk to the United States," Fauci said during an interview with radio show host John Catsimatidis.
"But it's something that we as public health officials need to take very seriously... It isn't something the American public needs to worry about or be frightened about. Because we have ways of preparing and screening of people coming in [from China]. And we have ways of responding - like we did with this one case in Seattle, Washington, who had traveled to China and brought back the infection."
There is a lot to unpack with this, but I do think the fact there is so much hype and not actual calm reporting on it that's lead to this being as bad as it is and other past scares being blown off like this one initially was. But perhaps if nothing else it might expose the happy idiocy of hospitals only having a few days of supplies on hand for pandemic treatments because of the just in time resupply idea.
ReplyDelete