Corona Virus, How Has It Affected Your Area So Far?

People in the media are a bunch of raging lunatics. Don't you remember when Joker came out they insisted that there would be terror attacks on cinemas because they didn't agree with the film? And when nothing happened, they looked disappointed.
The same thing is happening here. The media are the ones who hyped the need for toilet paper. Then they sat on their ivory towers laughing at the peasants killing each other for tp.
They are the ones who linked the drug to aquarium cleaner and insisted that people were stockpiling this chemical. Then when someone died from drinking it, they blamed others.
They were the ones who kept saying "it's just the flu, why is everyone panicking?" But now that we know it's serious, the media keep asking for draconian laws.
Screw mainstream media. Anyone who believes any of that BS is just ignorant.

That's better than the 100% defective ventilators that Trump sent to LA.

Making employees work at a centralized office rather than remotely has NOTHING to do with efficient use of resources / personnel. Its all about power and control. Little will change save in our most liberal cities. And not enough there.

Yah it's sad, but in America media is sooooooooooooooooo binary. Like, you can tell from the first statement in a piece where it's going/what they are pushing. No middle ground.

Except the murder mysteries! Those are great!

I'm sick of the trend of headlines that don't match the body of the story. These days people only read headlines and regurgitate that single sentence as irrefutable truth.

Journalistic integrity is dead. Stick to data reports and draw your own conclusions.

Another thing I do that seems to help is avoid any headline that has an adjective in it.
"Horrifying flood decimates coastal town" = skip
"Coastal town reports $XX in flood damage" = read

I already explained my method for gathering information earlier in this thread. I'm fine the way I do it. Still doesn't stop me from noticing that mainstream are lunatics. Just watch the news when Trudeau addresses Canadians live. During the question period, the "journalists" always ask the same stupid questions. "Are you planning on barricading roads?" "Are you planning on tracking people's movements with their cell phones?" "Even though you have agreements with Trump, are you sure he will keep them?" "Why aren't you doing more to restrict people from leaving their homes?" and so on. Always pure lunacy and fearmongering.
Just 2 months ago they were publishing "it's just the flu. why are the peasants buying extra canned good. oh my, what sad sacks..."

No, they aren't. They are a lunatic's wishlist. If they were to promote social distancing, hygiene, and responsibility, that would be fine. But why keep asking the PM to implement draconian methods keep people locked in their homes.
I don't want to go out, but I feel reassured knowing that if I run out of food, I can still go buy some. But the media keeps insisting that the public need to have their doors welded shut, like in China, because the media is run by authoritarian sociopaths.

I'm fine with asking our local leaders why they aren't doing more to ensure people shelter in place. My city now has over 200 cases, the vast majority are under 40 years old. The college kids are ignoring the virus and and causing it to spread. The city at least closed the public parks today, after two drownings over the weekend (thats what it took?) But there are still too many businesses open, too many people out and about. Pepper the mayor with as many questions as possible.

Human rights is always secondary to human life. At some point, the situation might worsen enough that governments will have to make the hard choice. Because if they don't... They will be drawing circles with numbers in front of your door indicating how many people are sick, dead and still alive in the house.

Hey, if the government decides they want the army patrolling the streets to make sure we stay home, so be it. But I can't help but think that the people who just 1 month ago were screaming about how we're all racist for not eating in certain restaurants have no right to be asking now about keeping the public barricaded in their homes.
As far as I care, the media is HUGELY responsible for the things happening right now. They spread so much fear and disinformation. Humans need time to adjust to new circumstances. Rather than screaming "stop panicking you, racists!" and "just wash your hands, that's not so hard," they should have said the truth and allowed people to take the time they needed to adjust.

Then you have to ask yourself what rights and freedoms are you willing to give away for this.

And then you have to ask your friends, relatives, coworkers, etc. the same question.

Do not be surprised when nobody agrees with you on this. That is the best thing about this country, everyone has equal rights and no one person can demand that those rights be taken away from them. Playing armchair dictator helps nobody.

Edit: I'm surprised this thread still exists. I figured it would have gone down the "anti-vax" lane by now.

No one is saying anything unscientific. That's why.

I'm guessing it is because there hasn't been any major or extended studies about this virus yet, just a lot of preliminary reports.

Come this time next year and we will find out that healing crystals don't cure this disease so-and-so medication works best for it.

What specific "things" are happening right now that you blame the media for?

If we survive

If the media didn't insist this was nothing, people would have started stocking up earlier and panic buying would have been less severe.
If the media didn't insist this was nothing, fewer kids would have gone to spring break.
If the media didn't insist this was nothing, more people would have started wearing homemade masks sooner.
They kept regurgitating that young people are not at risk when they should have asked young people to try to avoid getting sick so as to not overwhelm the healthcare system. Or so that they wouldn't spread the disease. But now young people are getting sick and being hospitalized. The media did that.
No matter what Trump says (I'm not a Trunp supporter but I also do not have derangement syndrome. If he's wrong he's wrong and if he's right he's right, but I can separate the information from the person saying it), it's always wrong regardless of which one of his advisors gave him the information, and even if the information is correct. That causes more fear and confusion.

Well obviously the Canadian media mirrors Fox News in the US, because the rest of our media was highlighting the severity of the threat back in January when it wiped out a nursing home in Washington State.

There's no talking to you. Stop making assumptions. I'm watching US, Canadian, UK, Australian and Italian news. And from what I saw from Fox, they aren't on a massive downplaying spree. Also, you disregarded most of my points.

Then you obviously weren't watching Fox in January and February. This is an easy one. Fox closely mirrors Trump's attitude. So when Trump was falsely accusing the Dems and the media of "weaponizing the coronavirus," Fox immediately jumped on that ship. They spent two months downplaying the virus, with the exception of one opinion host, Tucker Carlson (shocking I know).

You can't "weaponize" a threat by downplaying it. Remember, Trump absolutely refused to get tested for the virus on two separate occasions when he was directly exposed (took a picture with one of them) to individuals that tested positive, because he didn't think it was a big deal and he wasn't showing symptoms. We are still trying to catch up to those lost two months, and its not on the mainstream media.

There is never any point in talking/discussing anything with Vic. He is the textbook definition of narcissistic absolutist. He honestly believes that his version of reality is the truth and anyone/everyone else's viewpoints are automatically wrong.

It's better just to ignore him than to take his bait.

You're right. I'm done.

Since you insist that I take on each of these points, and I have nothing else to do. Lets break it down 1 by 1.


Not quite sure how the media in the US caused this panic buying. It was being routinely mocked in the early months and the general consensus question was: Why are so many people buying toilet paper in mass? We still haven't gotten to the bottom of that mystery.


I'm merging these two. So. Um. Know what would have really helped deter those dumbass spring breakers? Closing the beaches. Can the media close a beach in Canada? They certainly cannot in the US. Thats on state and local governments. We STILL cannot get this kids to practice social distancing. We put them on blast DAILY and it still isn't stopping. The media is certainly doing its part to name and shame them. Governors are panning their behavior in their daily conferences. But states are still slacking, my city just now closed parks, Virginia just now closed their beaches. Nothing is working.


So, in this country, with 330m people, we had our Vice President get up to the podium and clearly state: Most Americans won't need to go out and buy masks. If you want to blame the media for televising it, sure ok. But that low level of concern came from the gov't, not the media.


Uhhhhhh. Alrighty then.

He is actually lying, but it was a good laugh.

Sort of funny and ironic too. The more skeptical you are with the media, the more you blame them for the troubles even though you don't really believe them.

In fact, I think this is perfectly normal, health professionals went with their text book response.

At the beginning, "serious situation but don't panic, we have it under control" this is the response. Mostly prevent panic that would cause more problems and complicate things like everyone buying up masks and causing professional not to have any. Of course, things got sort of out of proportion. People forgot the "serious" part.

Of course, with social media, things got out of hand and they proceed to 2nd step "quarantine". This is big gun that China used as soon as situations got out of hand. Ideally they want an actual quarantine but they can't go against economics in a head on fight so it's "self-quarantine".

Economics and by extension, it's closest brother, logistics tend to be very arcane and have a tendency to bite you when you least expect them to. China got the disease so their supply chain broke in Feb. In March the world got into problem and China didn't have the time or man power to shift their industries. They came back to factories without any customers. It's not until near April that people realise the shortage is seriously hurting.

Of course, now the world economy is in stasis with farms and factories going idle. You are looking at 1-2 months before critical parts from factories running out and probably missing a farming year causing actual food shortage as several world governments hoard their food.