For months I have been criticising the media for presenting a consistently black picture of the pandemic, adding to the general sense of frustration and, still, fear. And the second wave is starting to swamp us. The media offer little encouragement or hope, belittling the efforts being made to solve the coronavirus mystery.
It is deliberate, heartless. A disgrace. It is right across the media, with daily scare headlines not just in the tabloid press. Unforgivably, the BBC is the worst offender. There is no respite. Every bulletin and the 24 hour news service is obsessed with statistics, presented almost identically, with charts and statistics dwelling on infections and the mounting daily death toll.
Fergus Walsh, the BBC’s indefatigable medical editor, is back with reports from “the front line”- the hospitals - making it almost a television drama. Never afraid to quote worrying facts such as the death statistics for the elderly.
What does that do for people like me?
Everyday brings more of the same. Yesterday we had more sombre news.
As usual, research is the culprit A team from Imperial College London reports that antibodies wane within months with the possibility of getting COVID-19 multiple times.
It received mass media coverage with The Daily Telegraph headlining its front page with, Immunity only last months, study finds. Not even ‘study suggests'.
All day the BBC led with the story with that infuriating backcloth of brightly coloured dancing viruses
That is the trouble with reporters. They are happy to accept press releases without reservation, suddenly becoming experts themselves.
This whole approach to coronavirus ‘news’ is a disgrace and a danger.
I am more than another of the coronavirus statistics Thanks to prompt and excellent care and nursing I am almost well again after a dangerous few weeks.
Relieved and looking forward to getting back to my former, if limited, life. I do not want to be warned of new dangers ahead.
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