Whether you get your news from print, television, or the internet, it is all about the headlines. Editors today for all news sources make every possible effort to get across their story in the headline. Why? Because many people do not read beyond the headline. This is why the headline is not about getting people interested, so they continue to learn more and find out what the story is about, but about getting across a message. A message that often does not reflect the story itself.
Take this recent headline,
"Americans 'dramatically misunderstand' risk of dying from COVID-19, researchers say".
Suppose you were to read only this headline. In that case, you might assume Americans underestimate the risk of dying from COVID-19. Still, if you read further, it turns out to be precisely the opposite. It would seem peoples fear of dying has distorted their perception of the actual risk. They believe the young are at much higher risk than they are, and that the elderly are at a much lower risk than they are. This is probably in part to similar misleading headlines and the fact the media does not often talk about who is at risk. The media prefers to talk about total cases and total deaths or deaths per day. These are the statistics they can turn into fear and anxiety.
Even now, as schools move towards reopening, the media wants to talk about how many students are being placed in quarantine because one student was found to have been infected. They try to make the public believe everyone in the school is now infected, but that is not the case. In their overabundance of caution, authorities put everyone who could possibly come in contact with the infected person in quarantine.
Why is this being done? Antibody tests have been available for some time now. Would it not make sense to test students and staff for antibodies before sending them back to school? Not that only those testing positive for antibodies should be the only ones allowed back into school, but at least then we would know whether a person really needs to be put under quarantine or not. Thus allowing school to go on for those who have antibodies.
In the early days of COVID-19, there was a lot of talk about the need for antibody tests. Several companies worked to develop these tests and bring their product to market quickly. However, neither the government nor the media report on the results of antibody testing. For a couple of weekends back in early June, a local testing site offered antibody testing, as well as virus, PCR, and testing. With no explanation, that test site suddenly closed down, and I have not found another locally offering antibody testing. I know antibody testing is still being performed at commercial testing sites, but I am not sure about the government sites.
If it was so important back in late March into April, why is it not more openly discussed? Why are the antibody tests being comingled with the virus tests in the positive test result counts? Shouldn't these be in a separate category indicating they are resolved cases? Are we supposed to figure out how many people may be immune at this point?
Here is what I know. Seventy-three million people have been tested, and 5.7 million have been confirmed as being infected, 7.8% of those tested. 3.04 million have been confirmed as recovered, or 53.3% of all cases have recovered at this point. Of the remaining 2.5 million active cases, only 17,000 are listed as critical/serious, or 0.7% of active cases are currently critical/serious. In other words, the probability of a positive outcome for the 2.5 million people actively infected is very high.
Many communities remain on lockdown. Many Americans cannot return to their jobs, young students are not being allowed to return to a physical classroom, and businesses continue to close permanently. I know no one wants to die from COVID-19, but no one wants to die from cardiovascular disease or cancer. Both of them have a higher death count this year than COVID-19. Some may say, but those diseases are different, they cannot be prevented. I say, sure they can. Lifestyle changes significantly improve your chances of not getting either of them. Where is the outcry informing everyone to make lifestyle changes to prevent these two diseases? There is none. There are campaigns to educate the public but no outcry from the media. These and many other ailments are considered part of life. Well, maybe it is time to consider COVID-19 part of life, given the experts are telling us COVID-19 is here to stay, we may never achieve herd immunity, there will likely be a significant population unwilling to take a vaccine, and immunity may not last more than a few months. Similar to the flu vaccine.
It is time for the experts, the politicians, and the media to stop the hyperbole so America can move on.
