Coronavirus Crash Open Thread

@wwth

Oh dear.

I really didn’t mean to give the impression I thought that. That isn’t how I meant to come across at all; I certainly do not believe that, and I’m sorry it came across that way.

The overall point I (obviously failed) to make is: the populations that are vulnerable actually have a much better chance of surviving if the rest of us don’t panic and clog up hospitals, and to that end we – as in, healthy adults – desperately need to calm down and stop spreading/listening to misinformation. I believe that people will die as a result of covid-19 when it’s not necessary because of this hysteria, and I’m absolutely not a fan of people throwing around panic-inducing statistics that don’t mean anything.

EDIT: I reread my earlier post and I see it could have been taken that way. The section about the death certificate was an (extremely bad) explanation of a confounding variable

Apologies to anyone I offended. I hope this clarifies my intention.

@Diego Duarte

Would there be an exemption or would they double down on the narrative?

They’ll double down and say coronavirus is a hoax or something.

Do they realize that their viewer base is the most at risk here? Or are they trying to associate the Coronavirus to Democrats in an effort to pass the blame entirely onto them?

They’re trying to associate it with Democrats to poison the well and undermine sources of factual information. They’re banking on their base getting angry at Democrats and evidently forgot that their viewers are at risk. Or just don’t care.

Do they realize that their viewer base is the most at risk here? Or are they trying to associate the Coronavirus to Democrats in an effort to pass the blame entirely onto them?

They’re trying to associate it with Democrats to poison the well and undermine sources of factual information. They’re banking on their base getting angry at Democrats and evidently forgot that their viewers are at risk. Or just don’t care.

Maybe this is overly cynical of me, but I keep looping back to Jr and his comments about how Democrats are hoping millions die and how all the Trump’s accusations seem to be projections of one kind or another.

I’m not sure Fox viewers are the most at risk. Sure, they’re older on average, but they’re probably more isolated than average too. The folks in rural areas will probably not be exposed to the virus before the folks in urban areas. Also, for all the “economic anxiety” excuses, Trump voters were wealthier on average than Clinton voters. This means a lot. In the US, the wealthier people tend to have better health care, better access to doctors and medicines, jobs with sick leave, cars, etc.

I don’t want people to get sick or to die. I think the ones who will suffer from the virus and any related economic fallout will largely be the poor, generally the working poor living in large cities. Since most of those people tend to vote Democratic, I wonder if that is part of the reason Fox doesn’t care. As to the administration not caring, Trump famously only cares for himself.

Violet,

Thanks for the clarification

I’ve already seen anti-vaxxers float theories that people with severe symptoms must have been vaccinated against the flu which somehow compromised their immune system.

They’ve got the cause and effect mixed up here. People with compromised immune systems are more likely to get the flu shot, because they’re more at risk from the flu and need the protection. And since people with compromised immune systems are more likely to suffer severe symptoms from covid-19, odds are good that most of the people in North America who suffer severe symptoms will also be those who got the flu shot.

Of course, the antivaxxers are going to take that grain of truth and use it to push an agenda that’s going to get people killed, because they’re monsters.

@Surplus to Requirements

Yes, the First Amendment was in effect then. But don’t underestimate the pressures that can be brought to bear when it comes to accuracy of the news that is published.

See also Fox News. Or to bring up a more period-appropriate example, the Hearst empire.

The other thing to keep in mind is that we’re now living in a period of rapid, reliable communications over long distances. We aren’t having to rely on telegraph wires, or ships/trains carrying the information. (Pause here to reminisce briefly about the days when Australia’s bandwidth was measured in the tapes they could load onto a plane and FLY to Australia so that the Aussies could catch up on Usenet.)

It’s a lot easier to control the flow of information when there are fewer avenues for distribution. A newspaper can’t print the truth if it has no reliable sources, or if its owners aren’t invested in printing the truth.

ETA: Nanny Oggs Bosom, thanks for bringing up the wartime factor. May your banjo always stay in tune.

Well, I was one of those lucky enough to have an employer that allowed me to work from home during a 14-day self-quarantine period. I went to Tokyo two weeks ago, and as it turns out, several cases have begun to be reported in my own country not long after I returned home. It’s been ten days since my return and I feel fine, so probably wasn’t infected out in Japan. It was rather disheartening to see the famously crowded Shibuya crossing relatively much more sparsely populated compared to all those times I’d been there before. Since my family is Catholic we went to Ash Wednesday services, and were shocked to hear an announcement that the Sunday Mass would be suspended in all churches in Japan for the first two weeks of Lent thanks to COVID-19.

And I can imagine how this hysteria over COVID-19 is bringing the old depopulation conspiracy theories into renewed currency. Never mind that it’s completely illogical. Even if there were some notional secret society of elites running the world depopulation is not to their benefit. Consider the last time that such a thing actually happened in history, in the 13th century. The Black Death did no favours to the ruling class of the time. The massive loss of population meant that the surviving feudal lords needed to suck up to the surviving peasants else they’d just go find some other lord who would. It resulted in a major crisis for the Catholic Church because their prayers and rituals did nothing to help with the plague. It basically spelled the end for the old feudal order of society and laid the groundwork for the social, religious, and scientific revolutions soon to come.

A notional secret society of elites, on the other hand has very much to gain from overpopulation rather. What better way to control the proles than to keep them divided and fighting one another for what scraps they can get?

I’m a librarian, whose 70 year old mom watches way too much TV news, and I am so glad that she trusts me to tell her the truth about things like this. She seemed unreasonably worried about the Coronavirus, but in weeding out the facts and theories, from actual scientists and doctors, I simply told her the truth of what I found.

I’ve had some good long talks with her about what the mainstream news is for, what information she is being given, and why . I’ve talked to her about past pandemics, vs, the seriousness of this one, and how she should be cautious, and keep an eye on developments, but there’s no need to freak out, as the news keeps insisting she should. Besides we have always lived like Preppers in my house, so there’s no need to go on a panicked spending spree.

I also live in a predominantly black part of town, and so far, I’ve seen no signs that black people are all that deeply concerned, outside of a few jokes about contracting it. But then this is kinda how we act most of the time. We might actually be concerned, but so far are maintaining our usual standards of behavior. (Most black communities only appear to have two modes: righteous anger about something, or sleepily casual, with seemingly no in-between state. I very much suspect we will behave with the same laissez faire attitude during the actual apocalypse, and just have a cookout.)

The inability to vet information sources is something we talk about a lot at the library, btw. About how, yes, the internet is a world of information at one’s fingertips, and how that is actually a real problem, because a lot of people are completely lacking in their ability to research things, and vet their resources, for truthfulness or reliability, preferring instead to take the word of some no nothing on social media, to the words of actual experts at properly vetted news sites. None of that is helped by people declaring anything in which they choose to disbelieve, as being “fake news”.
Also, our schools, in this country, have done a real number on people, by not teaching critical thinking skills.

This is a very, very, frustrating time to be a researcher, librarian, or just someone who is well read on an issue.You spend your time constantly pulling your hair, gnashing your teeth, or just arguing with people who are utterly convinced of their completely uninformed opinions, which they believe carry the same weight as an expert opinion!

This isn’t exactly thrilling viewing; but it is pretty informative I think.

re: news sources, back in MY day, we held that the input of someone who has spent a lifetime researching and testing IS likely more valid than the input of someone who merely has an opinion….

We don’t do that so much anymore….

(/s)

@NOBODY

Just fucking ask next time instead of creating drama.

Says the person who interjects into an exchange between two other people (which was settled BTW) and started throwing insults at people.

What are you trying to accomplish by jumping into that hours later?

@WWTH
And all the times they’ve complained (under an alias with the same image) for us talking about ableism. Or got angry about autistic commenters talking about how we don’t like to make eye contact and decided to attack us.