( a screencap from informationisbeautiful.net showing average disease deaths per a day )
Watching the world slowly get consumed by fear in the wake of the COVID-19 / Coronavirus being declared a pandemic by the WHO (World Health Organization) has been a bit of a spectacle from my viewpoint up in Central Canada. While the COVID-19 virus is quite contagious and has a mortality rate somewhere around 3% the fact of the matter is far, far worse diseases are currently running rampant on planet Earth yet are not receiving even a fraction of the media spotlight nor fear even though they pose a far more serious threat to human life and in some cases have far higher contagion ratings as well as higher mortality rates.
( a screencap from informationisbeautiful.net showing mentions by media )
Their is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has been absolutely spotlighted by the mainstream media. While only currently being the 17th most deadly disease currently effecting people on the planet it is absolutely dwarfing all others in regards to mentions in the media. Part of the theory behind this seems to lean towards the various media outlets capitalizing on this outbreak in order to put the population into fear mode, with the population begin to do things like panic buying all the toilet paper and other supplies out of fear of shortages and/or martial law being enacted preventing them from acquiring more necessities.
The question resonating in my mind is what are they covering up with bogging down the media and population with all of this fear mongering over a disease that in essence isn't nearly as bad as half the shit going on disease wise in the world? Something about all of this doesn't add up when you start researching into how exactly COVID-19 stacks up against other, far worse diseases currently circling the planet.
( a screencap from informationisbeautiful.net showing contagion factor compared to others )
Diseases such as smallpox have far greater infection and mortality rates, however in the case of smallpox a vaccine has been deployed for a number of years and the infection rate currently is minuscule. Diseases like tuberculosis though still run rampant in many countries and kill a huge number of people more than COVID-19. In fact COVID-19 only kills around 2.33% of the people that tuberculosis daily, which is merely a drop in the bucket when you think about it.. And yet the media is making it out to be the most dangerous thing on the planet. Seems fishy to me.. So far here in Central Canada we've only got 2 confirmed cases.
VOTE @KLYE FOR WITNESS!
Every Single Vote Helps, Thanks for the Support!
Need to get in Contact with KLYE?
Join the Official #KLYE Discord Server Today!
Looking for an Affordable, Secure & Reliable Server Host for Your STEEM Witness Server or Other Web Related Projects? Check out Privex.io!
Old data. In Italy alone in the last 24h 250 people died.
Do you see where is it going? And other countries are next in line...
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/italy/
Still way less than tuberculosis though..!
Thanks for this info though!
It's gonna get worse :(
Totally hear where you are coming from with this but I'm not sure there's any coordinated reasoning behind the doom-and-gloom reporting - other than profits. And you are right the hyper coverage is so out of whack with the actual health impact for many (Italy is a different issue - the average population age plays big into that curve). I think that since 9/11, news media is now in negative news bias focus ... and it's all our (the viewer's) fault. Bad or negative news attracts us and sells more. You are right it could be toned down a bit and contextualized for us but what the hell else is going on out there that we are missing?
The skew towards negative news has huge economic effects as well - ala COVID-19 coverage. That evidence is all around; the markets, hoarders gouging, businesses activating BCP plans, cancelled sporting and social events. It's ALL doom and gloom. It has a huge psychological effect as well. My mental state has me feeling like 9/11 all over again.
News outlets are driven by the performance of their media. Instead of compiling and framing stories with the context they rely on clickbait titles and reactionary images. They also perpetuate myths and do limited fact-checking... there are a few outlets that do well... but the ones that are front and centre hype that media cycle and we all feed into it. That my friend, I think, is the gist of our problem, we just crave negative news.
I've heard some wild conspiracy theories speculating on the real reason behind the media hyping and all the fear mongering, but I'll not go into it nor spread the ideas I've heard until I've got some proper proof of them actually happening. The doom and gloom / fear mongering is certainly in full swing, not really experienced anything like this in my time so far... SARS was bad, but they weren't shutting down schools here locally.
Perhaps we do crave negative news.. Kind of fucked up if you ask me though!
Oh, totally agree - majorly fucked up. I remember SARS too. Was working downtown TO at the time. Not even close to this go around. Even though my son ended up in the hospital with an unknown lung infection, at the tail end of SARS. He was in isolation and we had the Canadian head of infectious diseases come to check him out. Obviously ended up not being SARS (it was some encapsulated pneumonia bacteria) but the timing of it, scared the shit out of us. But like you said - this is sooo totally fucked.
"Keep calm and carry on" <- the ole WWII poster should be resurrected and posted everywhere.
Also new cases in Spain:
It's gonna be really bad in some EU countries...
Thanks for the data!
You and I might be the last people alive, due to where we live. Or not.
yeah.. Here in Central Canada we've only got 2 confirmed cases.. Compared to other places in the world that have thousands. :D
Are you big city now?
Second largest city in the province. If shit goes bad I'm going to head up north.
I'm already there.
Just stay at home, make groceries when there's least people in the shop. Make supplies.
I'm not even really worried about it to be fair.
I love the nature in Canada, can you shelter me? I can pay in STEEM, also have an experience in dealing with zombie apocalypse.
lol. If you can make your way to Canada we can cuddle on the couch. 100%