Your opinion on reporting of the pandemic

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Ggggrrr! I need a new keyboard. Most of the letters have worn off this one and I have to touch type. Unfortunately, my skills aren't always up to scratch.

Alegrias That sounds as it should be. Sadly, it's not always happening in England. My daughter lives in Greater Manchester and had all sorts of problems when she wanted a test. She's an HR Manager and some of the employees in her company haven't been offered support when they tested positive. Although they were paid sick pay (which some employees aren't), they struggled with getting basic chores done and one of them at least didn't stick to self-isolation rules. It's easy to understand how it can get out if control.

I do wonder if the media scaremongering was a deliberate policy to ensure compliance of the lockdown.

I have read on several occasions that the government was completely astonished at the level of compliance.

The fact that the police were given powers to send people home if they weren’t out legitimately, shows I think that the government expected a certain amount of resistance to being cooped up.

What better way to keep the masses indoors than to have the tv news night after night filming in Intensive Care wards and reporting on the daily death toll.

Occasionally there was a mention of the fact that the vast majority of people who catch the virus have very mild symptoms and make a full recovery but the doom and gloom news was the dominant story.

Thanks Ellianne

Don't get me wrong growstuff, I'm not suggesting we ignore it. Left unchecked we would be back where we started. But we've had efficient tracking and tracing of the Aberdeen outbreak and now we're doing the same for Coupar Angus. The former is almost under control, and I hope the same is soon true of the latter. The people in CA are being offered food deliveries and isolation accommodation if required.

What I'm saying is that we shouldn't think that R > 1 is cause for panic, which is what the press imply.

I live in Scotland where we still get daily briefings from the FM. I always watch so that I can get the information from the horse’s mouth, before the press put their slant on it. There is a lot of sense in doing that Alegrias. My husband misses the daily briefings here in England. Coming from an accounting background he used to get so angry when the journalists asked their questions. All I could hear from the living room was him saying in exasperation, "but that's not what the experts meant".

craftyone Those figures were arrived at by old fashioned maths, not by media manipulation.

Alegrias I disagree with you that the R number doesn't matter. Admittedly, a few cases can distort the figure if you're starting from a low base, but if it persists there will exponential growth and we'll be back where we were in March/April.

Apparently, Scotland's average R rate is estimated to be 1.3

I don't know how many active cases there are in Scotland, bur even if it's as low as 10, this is how the number of cases could grow if nothing is done about it.

Day 1 10 cases
Day 7 48 cases
Day 14 302 cases
Day 21 1900 cases
Day 28 11,925 cases

Some of those cases would die, some would have long-term complications and almost all would have their lives disrupted.

We just cannot afford to let our guard down. We need efficient testing and tracing with enforced isolation of those infected. If necessary those infected must be given support, so they don't need to go to work or cover up their symptoms.

Never meant to suggest you were craftyone, sorry if it came across that way!

eh!! I am the opposite of scared and will most definitely not be manipulated nor made to feel anxious which is not my nature .I don`t bother to listen to the news, have better things to do.

The masses cannot cope with, nor understand tables of numbers or graphs or scientific data. Hence the easy manipulation of people who only intake data via the media

Thanks for all the comments, its been really interesting to read what everyone thinks. Long post follows.....

I don’t believe we should only be getting the good news or that the media should be downplaying any risks. But what they choose to report is skewed, and they create a constant feeling that only negative things are happening. For instance, a couple of weeks ago all we heard about was the dire situation in Melbourne and how cases were “surging” (a good scary word). I had to look hard today to find a report that said the measures are working and that cases are falling again. Its lazy journalism because good news doesn’t earn clicks.

And as for the fabled R number, neither craftyone nor anybody else needs to be scared right now by the figure being above 1, because the relatively small number of cases we currently have means that any localised outbreaks have a disproportionate impact on the R number. The press has seized on the R number as something simple that they think they understand, that they can ask questions about. But unfortunately, numeracy and scientific understanding doesn’t seem to be high amongst our journalists.

I live in Scotland where we still get daily briefings from the FM. I always watch so that I can get the information from the horse’s mouth, before the press put their slant on it. Just today a Scottish newspaper had to delete a tweet after is was pointed out that it completely mis-represented what the FM had said about the Coupar Angus outbreak.

Of course another benefit of being in Scotland is not having to worry about PHE, Serco, or what Dido is going to do to the NHS……

varian

PHE is no more Merryl. Abolished for reasons unknown and replaced by some new quango led by the person who spectacularly failed to run our "world beating test and trace "

I'm waiting to see how the transfer of responsibilities to local authorities will work. Many people have been calling for more local responsibility and accountability, but it needs resourcing and good planning. It will just be more of the same, if Serco or whatever the new outsourced company is called is in charge and is controlled top down from the centre.

varian

I have just heard that the R number in the UK is now above 1.

(sorry to scare you crafty). Carry on regardless if you wish.

It's already been estimated that the R rate is likely to increase by 0.2 when schools return to "normal" in September.

Sorry, but I think we shouldn't bury our heads in the sand and do all we can to mitigate the risks.

MerylStreep

Craftyone
Absolutely. And now we know that up until June 18 if you had previously tested for positive with C19 and then subsequently went into hospital with something totally unrelated to C19 you were listed as having entered the hospital with C19.
How far did this practice distort the infection figures?
This directive came from PHE.

How many cases do you think that involved?

There were many people who tested positive for Covid-19, but didn't start to get really ill until they'd been infected for a couple of weeks. Some of those people sadly died, but if they now die more than 28 days after being tested (which many people do), they're no longer recorded as Covid-19 deaths.

It works both ways.

What it does mean is that it's not really possible to compare deaths over a given timeframe and some deaths are now being "covered up".

Can’t believe Dido Harding was given this role. It now seems commonplace that the more ineffective you are in public office the more likely you are to be given more responsibility and more of taxpayers hard earned money. Absolutely disgraceful.

PHE is no more Merryl. Abolished for reasons unknown and replaced by some new quango led by the person who spectacularly failed to run our "world beating test and trace "

Craftyone
Absolutely. And now we know that up until June 18 if you had previously tested for positive with C19 and then subsequently went into hospital with something totally unrelated to C19 you were listed as having entered the hospital with C19.
How far did this practice distort the infection figures?
This directive came from PHE.

I have just heard that the R number in the UK is now above 1.

(sorry to scare you crafty). Carry on regardless if you wish.

craftyone

scaremongering at its best, designed to turn the population into anxious conforming sheep.

I guess it depends what you read or watch. I don't watch TV and I read a range of media and other sources, so I've probably missed the scaremongering stuff. I concentrate on facts and the opinions of real scientists, such as those in Independent Sage, official reports and scientific journals, where they're available without subscription.

I want to know that the facts the public is given are accurate and that "difficult" facts aren't hidden. I'm not hugely bothered about the UK's place in some league table. This isn't a game and there aren't any prizes. However, I do want to know that those making decisions are mindful of how other countries with similar populations are managing the pandemic and would like to see the UK follow best practice.

Comparisons with other countries are very relevantEllianne.
Really? If I had a £1 for everyone who has compared the UK with NZ varian.
Statistics is one thing, if you read my comment I was talking about the individual handling of the crisis for the long term, not just the number of deaths.

scaremongering at its best, designed to turn the population into anxious conforming sheep.

I don't see it as the role of the media to be positive and upbeat.

I just want facts. If some people find those facts negative, they need to find their own way of dealing with it.

The worst scenario would be if those facts are not reported because some people find them negative.

Comparisons with other countries are very relevant Ellianne.

Admittedly it is not always possible to compare like with like as statistics have been compiled in different ways, but it is clear that the record of this country in coping with the pandemic is abyssmal. Only the USA and Brazil seem to be doing worse than the UK.

It is not surprising that deaths are relatively low at this time.

Lockdown measures have only recently been relaxed and many who are vulnerable, or others who can work from home are still choosing to be very careful.

There is another sad fact - some of those who were old or ill and may have died this month, actually died a few months earlier, either because of covid or because they did not get the treatment they would have had in normal times for other conditions.

We cannot be complacent. When the schools go back there is bound to be an increase in community transmission. An increase in the use of public transport and the opening up of entertainment and hospitality venues may also cause a rise in infection.

Winter may not just bring an increase in flu and other respiratory conditions, but people may be more likely to socialise indoors as it becomes impossible to see friends in parks and gardens..

Each country has chosen its own way to deal with the virus. That is absolutely right, and each country will have to live with its own decisions long into the future. What I object to in the media is all the negative comparisons between this country and another, because it is totally irrelevant.