The media consider themselves a Supreme Court in settling moral and social and even medical questions. This is especially evident in this crisis when no one in authority knows what to do.
Scott Allan
4 years ago
The all knowing good people – Liberal SJW’s all told Trump he was racist for stopping Chinese spreading the Wuhan Chinese Corona Virus. Now look at the infection rates per million? Germany is 2.5 times the USA, France is double the USA and Spain and Italy are 6 times the USA. Looks like racist fools like Trump are better for our health.
The final picture of which nation is doing it “better ” will only emerge after some months at the earliest . The things to measure will be the corona infection rate, the corona death rate and the overall change in national life-expectancy of the countries which you mention. Conclusive infection rates will probably not be established until the very widespread use of the antibody tests . At present different published infection rates are likely to be affected by the low rate of testing in some places . There will be different practices in the official cause of death as well, eg , did that cardiac patient die because of his heart , or the infection ? Hence the need to analyse changes in national life expectancy because there are direct casualties from this crisis , as well as indirect ones ( eg cancer patients who have their treatments postponed or rendered more expensive.)
David Waring
4 years ago
I find it amazing the alacrity with which the French authorities seized consignments of PPE heading for the UK.Yes I am aware it was subsequently just delayed, However it was seized. I also noted the “compassion” (sarc) being shown to the Greeks again. Also our press once rabidly in support of no borders has gone strangely quiet. Perhaps the intellectuals were busy decamping from London?
plynamno1
4 years ago
Media sniping at government politicians in the UK acts as a reminder of why mass media have lost so much influence with the public this past half-decade. News coverage of what has actually happened “i.e. News “is mixed in with its opposite, the much lengthier and more frequent speculation, kite-flying and snark. The result is that few in the mass media have been having a ‘good war’.
It means that the far more useful substance, calmly delivered public information, is prized where it does get some space in mass media. The medical people and well-informed researchers answering queries, measuring their words, being as precise as they can be, may not always tell all people what they want to hear but they do come as a far more interesting alternative to the partisan rubbish some political interests seem to think will do. And what a pleasure it is to see Science enhance its prestige and in the process provide an antidote to some of the hysteria that one hears and reads.
Fraser Bailey
4 years ago
The media class has earned the hatred and mistrust of most normal people in recent years. This applies particularly in Germany, and with very good reason, not least because you are forced to pay a TV/media licence in Germany even if you don’t have a TV. At least here in the UK one is free to throw out the TV – as I did 20 years ago – and not pay the tax. So hated are the journalists in Germany that they were attacked in Dresden a couple of years ago.
The attacks were carried out by apparently normal people when they were accused of being Nazis etc for objecting to the very high numbers of crimes – murder in this case – committed by recent immigrants. I expect a lot of these people vote AfD, and why not?
The media consider themselves a Supreme Court in settling moral and social and even medical questions. This is especially evident in this crisis when no one in authority knows what to do.
The all knowing good people – Liberal SJW’s all told Trump he was racist for stopping Chinese spreading the Wuhan Chinese Corona Virus. Now look at the infection rates per million? Germany is 2.5 times the USA, France is double the USA and Spain and Italy are 6 times the USA. Looks like racist fools like Trump are better for our health.
The final picture of which nation is doing it “better ” will only emerge after some months at the earliest . The things to measure will be the corona infection rate, the corona death rate and the overall change in national life-expectancy of the countries which you mention. Conclusive infection rates will probably not be established until the very widespread use of the antibody tests . At present different published infection rates are likely to be affected by the low rate of testing in some places . There will be different practices in the official cause of death as well, eg , did that cardiac patient die because of his heart , or the infection ? Hence the need to analyse changes in national life expectancy because there are direct casualties from this crisis , as well as indirect ones ( eg cancer patients who have their treatments postponed or rendered more expensive.)
I find it amazing the alacrity with which the French authorities seized consignments of PPE heading for the UK.Yes I am aware it was subsequently just delayed, However it was seized.
I also noted the “compassion” (sarc) being shown to the Greeks again.
Also our press once rabidly in support of no borders has gone strangely quiet. Perhaps the intellectuals were busy decamping from London?
Media sniping at government politicians in the UK acts as a reminder of why mass media have lost so much influence with the public this past half-decade. News coverage of what has actually happened “i.e. News “is mixed in with its opposite, the much lengthier and more frequent speculation, kite-flying and snark. The result is that few in the mass media have been having a ‘good war’.
It means that the far more useful substance, calmly delivered public information, is prized where it does get some space in mass media. The medical people and well-informed researchers answering queries, measuring their words, being as precise as they can be, may not always tell all people what they want to hear but they do come as a far more interesting alternative to the partisan rubbish some political interests seem to think will do. And what a pleasure it is to see Science enhance its prestige and in the process provide an antidote to some of the hysteria that one hears and reads.
The media class has earned the hatred and mistrust of most normal people in recent years. This applies particularly in Germany, and with very good reason, not least because you are forced to pay a TV/media licence in Germany even if you don’t have a TV. At least here in the UK one is free to throw out the TV – as I did 20 years ago – and not pay the tax. So hated are the journalists in Germany that they were attacked in Dresden a couple of years ago.
I understood that the attacks were carried out by Anhaenger/ Mitglieder of the AFD and NPD . Have you any further info about that ?
The attacks were carried out by apparently normal people when they were accused of being Nazis etc for objecting to the very high numbers of crimes – murder in this case – committed by recent immigrants. I expect a lot of these people vote AfD, and why not?