Irresponsible reporting of corona virus?

I do agree. We need public information that we can trust, like those broadcasts they used to do . More leadership is needed from the Government, although they are at least now listening to experts instead of dismissing them.

The information would have to be shown on Twitter, Instagram etc. as well as TV and radio, now that younger people are not engaging with TV and radio as much as they used to. I seem to remember as well, that the coalition Govt. closed down the department that made the public information broadcasts as a cost cutting measure.

A lot of the stuff in certain newspapers is just scaremongering bo##ocks and bu##sh%t.

I agree -tv reporters sound almost gleeful when they can report a rise in cases or an overshopped store.

I am not sure that the reporting is irresponsible. Johnson has said today that we need to prepare for substantial disruption that could last for months. I think if anything most people are not bothered enough. This is not going away and its going to get a whole lot worse if the government advisers predictions are correct.

I agree too. I am only watching or listening to the news once a day. One of the main things that annoys me is when they give the number of cases. It is never qualified by also saying how many have already recovered and how many are recovering.
Of course as far as media is concerned Bad news is good news and good news is no news.

Trouble is, there's no news to speak of. The Sussex's are no more, floods have taken a back seat though some homes remain under water, what else is there ??

The media have a lot to answer for in causing the chaos in the shops and even mental illness in many.
I was talking to a neighbour today who'd said that his sister wouldn't be visiting him if the virus was in his area. He said she's paranoid about it.
This is wrong to stir up such a frenzy, people don't need it.

Well, we've got a Wine & Wisdom evening planned at the Village Hall,..............

I'm so pleased to see I'm not alone. Even my usually sensible daughter is fretting and constantly phoning to see if I'm alright (she lives 200 miles away) and she is now urging me to cancel a holiday I booked months ago.
I holiday alone and have done for years, but she's imagining the most terrible scenarios - mainly of me stranded, ill and in a foreign country and unable to return home. She's even gone so far as to offer to give me the money I will lose if I cancel the break.
Who knows? She may be right. I consider myself to be very fit for my age ................ but that's the problem ............... I'm 80.

I'm not far off 80 Bbarb---Que Sera Sera.

You are right, phoenix. Sadly, many are taken in by it.

I'm referring to your post of 19:49:29 by the way. ?

EllanVannin its not so much me I'm thinking about, like you I have reached the age of 'if I die, I die' but the possibility that I may infect my nearest and dearest if I 'bring it home'.
We have been given no guidance on the subject so I'm asking myself if its irresponsible to swan off enjoying myself if there's a risk of infecting other people.
But there's nowhere to go for reliable advice.

Some of the reporting is definitely unnecessarily alarming and done for attention grabbing headlines. The reporting of the ridiculous amount of panic buying is causing shortages, as more people panic buy to catch up with the first wave sigh

ginny if you'd be interested in accurate figures of numbers involved in the virus I can recommend this site www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ When it was breaking news of the UK's first death the figure was updated within minutes, so it would appear to be as accurate as possible.

Bbarb, unless you plan to holiday in an infection hotspot you probably have as much chance of contracting the virus here as in many other places. I fear guidance, if/when it comes, will vary widely from source to source. I'm not sure I'd trust our present government to be wholly impartial, or sad to say wholly truthful.

Keep calm and was your hands! That's all you can do.

I agree - terrible reporting by the press. If only everyone was so quick to react to the risks of developing heart disease or cancer that kills millions every year by exercising more, losing weight, reducing alcohol consumption, stopping smoking and eating more healthily.

On the news today, it was announced a second person had died, this was followed by a reporter standing outside the
hospital where the person had died.

Thank you janipat.

We watched a chap this afternoon on a News programme and he seemed positively gleeful as he announced the number of deaths and people testing positive.
Shameful really.

I was amazed to see someone on TV with a big trolley piled high with paper products - toilet rolls, kitchen paper, j-cloths etc. There were packs on the axles at the bottom and the baby seat too!
No sanitiser, they'd run out.
We'll be digging up our lawns to plant potatoes next!

I wish the papers and other media would stop using terms such as "killer virus" and "deadly virus". Many other viruses from flu to smallpox via measles cause deaths but are not usually referred to in such sensationalist ways.

When the reports of stockpiling and abuse of Asian-looking people come in, I despair of the human race!

Did anyone see the “ Tonight” programme this week? It put a better perspective on it all.