9% of America has Already Died from Covid-19?

9% of America Has Already Died of Covid-19?
The View from the Middle

Would it surprise you if I told you that, according to Gallup, the credibility of all media outlets has been plunging since 2016? As Trump Derangement Syndrome poisons the coverage of the Liberal media, the credibility of the once “north star” of print media (the NY Times) has slipped to just 29% amongst Republicans. CNN and MSNBC have fallen even further as only about one in four (27%) Republicans find them believable. Among all adults, trust in the media has fallen about ten percentage points in just three short years. These are disastrous numbers for an industry whose stock-in-trade is trust. There are two storylines that the media have absolutely blown in 2020 that have only exacerbated their fall from grace – the economy and Covid-19.

Back in May, the media projected that America would lose nine million jobs and that our unemployment rate would go up to 19.0%. Instead, our economy created 2.5 million new jobs and the unemployment rate went down to 13.3%. The media, however, hardly covered these spectacular numbers and totally ignored the massive miss that their projections represented. They missed again in June and you would think they would have learned their lesson, but apparently not. Just recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the July results, and wouldn’t you know it, the media underestimated the strength of our economy again. The US created 300,000 more jobs than predicted and our unemployment rate fell to just 10.2%, a full point lower than the June numbers and half a percent point lower than the projections. These consistent misjudgments are the kinds of things that destroy the media’s reliability and any appearance of objectivity.

Who is telling the story about these amazing jobs results, especially compared to expectations and in light of our attempted self-destruction of our economy. The media is certainly not covering it, so you’ll probably only hear this storyline here at the VFM.

However, in my opinion, the media’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic has bordered on journalistic malfeasance. While I have already admitted that this virus is a serious matter for America and the world, the media has reported on this disease in a way that has totally misled the American people. In a July 27th publication, the Covid-19 Opinion Tracker reported that the average American believes that nine percent of the US population has already succumbed to this virus. NINE PERCENT!!! That would represent over 30 MILLION deaths in the US when we have actually lost about 150,000. Now, 150,000 is a lot of deaths, but 30 million is 200 times the reality. The fact that the American public is that confused about the mortality rate of this disease is an indictment of the media’s slanted, sloppy and even dishonest coverage.

The media has convinced the American people that getting the coronavirus is a death sentence, when the truth is that somewhere between 99.5 and 99.9% of the people who actually get infected by this disease will survive. If this had been the storyline from the beginning of this pandemic, our country would have responded very differently and our results would also have been different, maybe better.

And, of course, the media is not even considering the long-term implications of the paranoid behavior they are inspiring. Brenda and I just got back from a week in Florida. Yes, Florida, and we’re still alive. We followed the rules and wore masks when appropriate and sometimes just to be polite to more concerned vacationers, but it was a very pleasant stay. On the way there, however, we saw some very disturbing behavior that will affect our young people for years to come.

At the airport in Northwest Arkansas, there are rules in place for adults and children over 10 to wear masks, and as I suggested earlier, Brenda and I complied with that rule. We did see a family, however, with three children, all under 10, who were all wearing masks, AND goggles AND face shields attached to giant hats to accommodate the face shields. What kind of story do you have to tell three children under 10 to get them to dress up in these “near hazmat” outfits. Certainly not the truth, which is that it is very unlikely for them to transmit this disease and, even according to virologists and pediatricians, it is extremely unlikely for them to suffer serious symptoms. Fatalities are almost non-existent. From February 1st through July 8th only 30 children under age 15 have died of Covid-19 in the entire United States. While this group represents almost 20% of the US population, these 30 deaths represent only .02% (that’s two hundreds of one percent) of coronavirus fatalities. Said another way, children under 15 are a thousand times less likely to die from the coronavirus than the general public.

What media outlet is telling the true story about the mortality rate of this disease, especially in children? What investigative reporter is exploring the long-term emotional, educational and even financial damage being done to our society by short-sighted, unscrupulous politicians and a misguided media, hellbent on panicking everyone in this country? Well, you’ve at least heard about these stories here at the VFM.