Your opinion on reporting of the pandemic

In my opinion there has been far too much scaremongering regarding the pandemic.

There is litttle if no reporting of the fact that for the eight week running the UK deaths have been below the five year average.

They seem to concentrate on doom and gloom stories as opposed to positive ones.

The desire to frighten the population into total submission has worked better than UK Gov could have ever hoped, with total cooperation from the media. I too follow the Worldometer figures, and they give a realistic encouraging picture.

Which ever country you look at, the pattern of infections rising and falling is the same - sharp rise in the first few months of the year, tailing off, slight increase when lockdowns were eased (if the country did lockdown, but Sweden seems to follow the same pattern even though it didn't) but nowhere is there a bigger second wave. Treatments have improved now to the extent that number of deaths per country continues to fall.

It is still out there, but it is less dangerous to catch it now that treatments are more effective. I do wish we would publish figures on numbers recovered, and numbers actually infected at any one time, virtually every other country does!

I have just started a thread about the removal of Trinidad and Tobago from the countries we can visit without quarantining on our return.
T&T have had 548 cases/million population, 9/m deaths
U.K. has had 4744 cases/million population, 609/m deaths
Something is very wrong here. We are a risk to them, not the other way round!
Frankly I think the government does not have a clue.

I replied to your post, it’s the exponential rise 25.81 per 100,000:this week, 9.10 week before.

I don't know what I think about the reporting, and I'm not sure how anyone other than an epidemiologist can be sure.

The problem is that our opinions on the virus can only be informed by the way it has been reported, so it's a bit of a vicious circle.

I do, however, think that the government's response to the pandemic has been a disgrace, as evidenced by the rate of deaths in care homes and the delay with which we went into lockdown (such as it was). I also think that the televised briefings showed many of the cabinet for the incompetents they are, and will have reduced public confidence in the government as a whole, as, of course, did the Dominic Cummings fiasco.

Sorry Alegrias pressed too quickly, didn’t respond to your post.
I think the reporting is always so negative, I don’t expect facts to be sugar coated, but some positive news at the same time would be cheering and there are positive news stories related too.

I’m afraid I have to agree that the media has been very negative when reporting about Coronavirus. Having said that, most reporting about anything is very negative all the time.
We certainly didn’t get everything right when the pandemic started, late lockdown, didn’t close borders, didn’t make travellers quarantine at the height of the pandemic, the treatment of care homes etc. However we appear to be managing the current situation well, with a few things not being managed as well as they should be. We’re actually doing better than many other countries now.

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.

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..

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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
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.

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 "

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.

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".

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.

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.

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……

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

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