It would be right for the media for dutifully reporting the spread of the coronavirus, the negative effects on business and the economy, and the disruption in our personal lives, including the tragic loss of many people. But instead the media has been hyping the narrative, cheerleading hard lockdowns, promoting pessimists covering as authorities, and providing virtually no balance or context. The media have become the most loyal spokespeople of governments and authorities, never questioned “the science” that made awfully wrong predictions already at the start of the pandemic and continue to do so, even we know better today. It is wrong to use scare tactics and to promote pessimism during a health crisis.
People need accurate and objective information, including the value of mask wearing, social distancing and vaccination, instead of misinformation and scaremongering. Once the virus spread, the media reported one heart-breaking COVID-19 fatality after another. Official government and authorities statistics showed that the average age of Covid victims in any country was over 80 years old but instead the media was reporting about college students, young parents, children and even a few babies in their directed and staged stories. There was no mentioning of severe pre-conditioning and the fact that people were dying “with” and not “because of” the virus. To attract viewers, the media created the impression that the coronavirus was far more lethal to young, healthy individuals than it actually is.
Examples: The mainstream media celebrated New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for his outstanding job in following the science to protect his New York residents with severe lockdowns. Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was depicted as reckless, endangering his citizens by giving consideration to the economic and educational impact and imposing only temporary or partial lockdowns. Today we know that a smaller percentage of Floridians have suffered COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths than New Yorkers. And the gap is almost certainly even larger than we know, as Cuomo and his administration are under investigation for deliberately undercounting nursing home deaths. Throughout the pandemic, the mainstream media has been an energetic cheerleader for severe lockdowns that damages livelihoods and health of so many people.
And what about all the side effects? Why is mainstream media not covering in detail and unbiased all the bankruptcy of thousands of small businesses, the layoffs of millions of workers, the educational disruption of hundreds of millions of students world and the personal hardships of countless families and the consequences for years to come? The economic results of America’s ongoing experiment with COVID-19 top-down authoritarianism are in, and they provided the clearest picture to date about the very real, devastating side effects of lockdowns. The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics has released new statistics highlighting the unemployment figures from January (pre-pandemic mania) 2020 when compared to January of 2021, and the difference in outcomes is staggering. South Dakota, which has remained open over the course of the past year, has the best numbers on record. Under Governor Kristi Noem’s leadership, South Dakota registered both the lowest percentage increase of unemployment, in addition to the lowest overall unemployment percentage. Also the remaining 9 states with the best unemployment numbers, except Vermont, took a more minimalist approach to COVID-19 restrictions. On the opposite side of the list, are states that saw a spike in unemployment of 4 percent or more since January, 2020: California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada and Massachusetts. All of these states implemented major and hard lockdowns that were intended to stop the annual respiratory sickness season from occurring, but failed to do so. These policies did in fact detonate their respective economies. Moreover, most of these states continue to have major restrictions in place that will keep unemployment moving in the wrong direction. After a full year of evaluating the data, it’s clear that there was no threat to states that allowed the economy and society to flourish. It took courage for these political leaders to stand up to COVID mania, and their states have been rewarded in the form of a more thriving economy and society. States like New York and California, where millions have been driven into financial ruin, imposed top-down draconian measures in order to stop the spread of the virus. They have only registered significantly worse outcomes, on both a disease burden front in addition to the ruinous economic and societal side effects of lockdowns. Not a single top-down restriction did anything statistically demonstrable to stop the virus problem.
Why is there no reporting about countries like Sweden who handle the pandemic more freely and differently but are not worse off than hard lock downing countries? What about the schools and universities that are continuing with personal held classes and who have no negative impact on the schools/universities, students and teachers? You never hear about these stories and that’s because it doesn’t fit the media’s narrative.
To make good decisions in life we need an accurate depiction of the state of the world that balances the bad with the good, offers some context and provides a sense of optimism about the future. The media is not doing so. Therefore you need to understand how they operate: tragedies, danger and loss are great subjects for the daily news.
Fear and anxiety won’t help you making the best decisions. There have been and will be always problems and setbacks around the world. The pandemic is one of them.
Sven Franssen