Especially when the police now say that it was not 400, but 150. Not too far out.....
Now. Who was daft enough to assume that the police could actually count.
SARS CoV-2 coronavirus / Covid-19 (No tin foil hat silliness please)
- Thread starter Don't Kill Bill
- Start date
Especially when the police now say that it was not 400, but 150. Not too far out.....
Now. Who was daft enough to assume that the police could actually count.
Hang in there. Doesn’t feel like but we’ve got the cnut on the ropes. All pandemics end and this one is heading towards the end now.
More contagious and more deadly? FFS.
It doesn't have to be an organised conspiracy to be damaging. It seems to me that increasingly, even previously reputable news sources are now so keen to get "news" out there via social media, or online for rapid consumption they're playing fast and loose with facts. And frankly, scary stuff garners more clicks. Seems perhaps its no longer about quality reporting, but simply being first, or getting the most traction.
I'd suggest that the BBC (who a lot of people will implicitly trust), then before you go on to national radio before millions and tell people that their kids are more likely to be hospitalised with coronavirus than they were during the last wave, you'd better be certain that is accurate. You might consider whether the opinion of one nurse, in one hospital is enough to rely on.
I can't see how this example is in any way defensible. It's dreadful journalism.
You are absolutely correct that the BBC should be reporting bad news but they should do so accurately. Inaccurate reporting just erodes confidence in the media. Some will take the view that if they're wrong on this,. what else are they wrong on?
I hope that it was on purpose.
The metaphors are more mixed than you think!
Extremely worrying news about the new variants. It really is not getting better anytime soon is it?
No ones disputing that, or the general point about a decline in quality of reporting. The BBC should be held to higher journalistic standards than reporting the opinions of idiots as news.
But I do dispute that it cuts one one way, or that the BBC is uniquely interested in portraying this to be a cataclysmically bad event (beyond the general parameters of this being a cataclysmically bad event). For every dickhead like our mate Laura above, a dickhead who was widely criticised across BBC platforms, there's a penis talking about how lockdowns don't work and we should open things back up, an airline boss talking about how quarantines are pointless, a war criminal ex-PM talking about how we should ignore the vaccine guidance and so on. Maybe if we hadn't had so many of the 'it's just the flu' types given platforms across the media 12 months ago we would be in a better position.
By almost every metric we've been one of the worst hit countries in the world, and I'm not sure that's the tenor or tone that comes across in any of the reporting from any of the media in this country. Far from scaremongering, I think the media are pretty quick to paint as rosy a picture as they can. It's just that picture is still shit because the situation is so shit.
Ahh yes. Thanks. Just seen on channel 4 news too.
Would be strange if the mutation got more deadly. Because normally transmission is more effective if a virus is less deadly. But maybe the transmission in younger people is high and it is more dangerous in elderly people. All conjecture of course.
The world recovered from the Spanish flu mate and then had the roaring 20’s. We’ll have our own roaring 20’s soon enough
'there is light at the end of the tunnel' has been said so many times it has lost all meaning
'we're all in this together'
'play your part'
"jUst a bIt lOnGeR'
'we're all in this together'
'play your part'
"jUst a bIt lOnGeR'
Did seem that way with the figures and even personal experience. Before New Year’s Day I didn’t know anyone (outside work) who’d had the virus. 22 days into January I know about a dozen. To quote heavy d, “we’re fecked”.
Imagine believing the "...not long now" brigade, only to find yourself faced with fergietime.
Guessing it was a cultural wedding, for example an Indian wedding which are normally huge
It was at an Orthodox Jewish school. The headmaster of that school died in April from covid.
Oh I see. So presumably a Jewish wedding
So I'm assuming any form of restrictions will be Easter time?
No way is there going to be any relaxation mid February
No way is there going to be any relaxation mid February
Orthodox jews are apparently behind most of the big outbreaks in Israel. Completely refusing to comply with social distancing measures. Which is extremely frustrating for the rest of them.
Just to clarify the terminology, I believe in Israel it has been the ultra-orthodox rather than the orthodox whose response to the pandemic has been problematic. There is actually a significant distinction between them, although I’m not sure how it manifests in the UK.
It's if they find that the vaccines don't work against new strains it'd feel like back to square 1.
Fingers crossed it stays as expected that it works the same against all strains!
I didn't say that they are.
My point is that, whether it's intentional or not, or a "conspiracy", which like you I don't believe it is, its just as damaging. Regardless of whether there is an agenda, that piece is, in my view "scaremongering". If you're parent, that is terrifying and it isn't true. It's also something that is clearly going to get a lot of traction. My opinion is that the individual journalists looking for stories to report, are very well aware of that and the need to be relevant amongst the mountains of news pumped out every day across TV and social media.
The reality is, this is no better that the garbage you're referring to above, and if anything, plays into the hands of the nuggets on Twitter and other platforms who now have a voice. They can point to that and say "See, the BBC are lying to you" and that can't be good for anyone.
If you're going to criticise the people you are criticising you have to criticise the BBC for shit like this. You can't give them a free pass.
How come the supermarkets and shops are so relaxed this time compared to the March lockdown?
First lockdown there were limits on the amount of people in the supermarket, one way systems, people cleaning and aitizing all the baskets and trolleys. This time you can just go into Asda along with half the capacity of Wembley stadium, pick up your corona basket, head up the milk isle in either direction and barge someone's nan out the way to smear your germs over all the Cravendale.
Did it turn out none of this makes any real difference or is it just down to laziness creeping in?
I reckon how many people are in a supermarket at once and how clean things are makes 10x as much difference as whether there's one random idiot not wearing a mask.
First lockdown there were limits on the amount of people in the supermarket, one way systems, people cleaning and aitizing all the baskets and trolleys. This time you can just go into Asda along with half the capacity of Wembley stadium, pick up your corona basket, head up the milk isle in either direction and barge someone's nan out the way to smear your germs over all the Cravendale.
Did it turn out none of this makes any real difference or is it just down to laziness creeping in?
I reckon how many people are in a supermarket at once and how clean things are makes 10x as much difference as whether there's one random idiot not wearing a mask.
Ah. Ok. Interesting. I heard about this from a business colleague in Israel. He may well have said ultra-orthodox but I heard orthodox. He had quite a strong accent!
Who is giving them a free pass? I've said it's gutter journalism. Gutter journalism that you correctly diagnose the root issue of, but gutter journalism that was nevertheless corrected.
Is that good enough? Not really, and it's a failure of the BBC's insane approach to balance that encourages them to seek out lunatics on both sides of a debate. I just don't think as an isolated incident an issue whereby someone was given airtime that shouldn't have been and then was swiftly corrected is proof that the entire response has been to sensationalise.
I went to Tesco yesterday, they have a traffic light system. I went early so just walked in as it was pretty empty, I wore my mask, wiped by trolley down, sanitised my hands. They have a security guy there in a mask watching who is coming in. They got rid of the one way system ages ago as it caused more problems than it solved. The only things that seriously gets my goat, is the aisle not being blocked by shoppers, but trolley dollies doing other peoples shopping for them.
I don’t know why you’re obsessing about that one report as though it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. The dipshits who have been whinging about how lockdowns are unnecessary and the MSM is lying to us made up their mind a long time ago, so that piece of coverage is neither here nor there. Their fixed opinions have everything to do with like-minded dipshits cherry-picking content to share on social media and almost nothing to do with the general thrust of BBC coverage, which has been overwhelmingly accurate and reasonable. Anyone who took all BBC coverage as gospel would be far far better informed than the vast majority of MSM critics.
You seemed to justify it in the post I commented on initially is if it wasn't a big deal because it was corrected. It was corrected - as it should be, but because they had little choice, an expert having called them out on it being incorrect. Had he not done so, would they have looked into it any further or moved on to the next story?
If it is an isolated incident that's fair enough, but frankly, the problem comes from the method. Whichever journalist or researcher that was is in a position to get that on national radio, had no issue with the info they had, certainly not enough to actually fact check it properly. You'd expect much, much better from a publicly funded organisation of the BBC's reputation.
My point is that inaccurate news is inaccurate news, whatever the agenda behind it and even if you have no agenda at all. If we can't trust the BBC to report stories accurately then journalism in the UK is properly f****d. Millions of people will accept what they say as the truth but incidents like this erode trust and gives the loonies the fuel to push their own rubbish. My opinion is that this type of stuff has the potential to be more damaging than rubbish posted on social media.
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First lockdown here the local Morrisons had a queue system, security guards, someone cleaning all the baskets and trolleys before they were re-used, and were only allowing 1 person in per family unless it was someone who needed assistance.
It's a free for all now. Kids runnign up and down the isles and wiping their snot on all the vegetables (probabably). Queues for all the tills and packed isles....and they've come up with the genius idea of putting the baskets next to the self service checkout so they don't have to bother moving them so people can use them again...but it means you literally have to barge through the queue for the tills to get one.
If there's some scientific data showing all the supermarket precautions mean feck all then fair enough, but I really doubt that's the case since we never had a spell in the first lockdown where supermarkets were just letting people do whatever they want, so there's no way to make a comparison.
I also found it a lot easier to do a weekly shop in one go with the restrictions as once you got into the shop there was no hassle and everything was stocked, where as now it's back to being rage inducing and having to go 3 times just to get all the essentials.
I'm better at biological evolution than viral evolution so I may well be wrong but I'm thinking that being more infectious will increase the spread and being more deadly inside the infectious period will decrease the spread. If the former is greater than the later or increased mortality is after the infectious period, then the new variant can still become the dominant variant in the population.
I wouldn't say making a handful of comments on a message board is "obsessing" about anything. Am I not allowed to be pissed off by and comment on this?
I suspect there are millions in this country who do take what they hear on the BBC as the gospel truth. As I said above, assuming this is a genuine error, the fact that its possible for that kind of thing to make it to the radio without being properly checked is shocking. They should be held to a higher standard. I expect shit to be put out by the tabloids and by nuggets on twitter but this is genuinely frightening for a parent. It's hard enough parenting during the pandemic as it is. It's irresponsible, and while you are absolutely right that the BBC are probably more accurate than the rest of the MSM, I personally don't think that justifies it.
Increased mortality may also not be a direct function of the new variant but due to hospitals being overwhelmed.
That’s the thing. This fecking thing takes ages to kill you and starts spreading before you become infectious. The IFR could go up by many multiples without giving it any meaningful evolutionary disadvantage.
I still think covid will become more and more benign but that will be through our our collective immunity evolving, rather than selective pressure on the virus.
Good point but you’d have to assume they’re comparing cohorts from the same time period. I’d really like to see the publication!
You’re portraying this piece as some sort of canary in the coalmine that reveals deep flaws in the BBC coverage. It’s no big deal. They produce hundreds of hours of content every week. They’re bound to get led up the garden path every now and then. All they did wrong here was take the words of an experienced senior nurse at face value. It’s not a big deal and doesn’t take away from the quality of their overall pandemic coverage. Which is pretty good.
My partner, who’s a frontline worker, had a routine test come back positive today. I went for a test at midday, got it back already to confirm it as positive. 9 hour turnaround. We both feel fine.
What’s amusing is I did a tabata-style workout last night at home.....and I was absolutely blowing. I’d had a big tea and we had the heating on full drying clothes. There was sweat flying everywhere and I’m thinking, “bloody hell this is hard work tonight”. Didn’t know I had the virus
What’s amusing is I did a tabata-style workout last night at home.....and I was absolutely blowing. I’d had a big tea and we had the heating on full drying clothes. There was sweat flying everywhere and I’m thinking, “bloody hell this is hard work tonight”. Didn’t know I had the virus
Agreed, but that's the problem with the BBC's interpretation of their remit at the present time. I think it's a dereliction of duty and a complete failure of journalistic integrity, but there you go.
The simple fact is the BBC see their role as giving a voice to both sides of the 'debate'. In this instance, a matron of a children's hospital claimed that their ward was full and that it was being spread wider amongst children, which was published without fact checking on the mistaken belief that she was telling the truth. I also don't if they sought her out, or if she called in to one of the endless talk shows that exist on five live. At any rate, her claims were then coupled with a massive number of people contradicting her, ending up with an article that reads incredibly dismissive of her claims with four experts dismissing them: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55518248
I don't like that approach to journalism, I don't think it's good enough, but it's a symptom of a (in my view) flawed approach to balance rather than an attempt to scare or mislead.
I get the sense this now has the potential to be like flu. With a different strain every year. But more deadly than flu of course.
I agree, it has to make a difference. We have rolls of paper towel and disinfectant sprays outside the supermarkets I use, so you can clean your own trolley handle and then use the other gel on your hands. It's the convention here to always wear those thin polythene gloves when picking up fruit and veg, so everyone's used to doing that anyway.