By James Simons-
Daily news reports of confirmed daily Covid cases in the UK is considered by members of the British public to amount to fearmongering, whilst many members of the public are literally scared by daily reporting of increased number of cases, The Eye Of Media.Com can reveal.
62% of a small sample of 1500(930) people spoken to in East London and Basildon in a two day period on the 28th and 29th of December said they believed the daily news coverage highlighting increased covid cases is designed to cause fear in the public and push for a lockdown, whilst just under 30% (414)said they believed it was important for the public to be updated with developments in infection numbers.
Of the 62% who deemed daily reporting of infection rises to be fearmongering, just over half of them (459)said they believed the statistics were accurate, and 44% (410)said they did not believe the statistics.
When the various groups were asked their reasons, they differed widely. Those who believed the statistics had either conducted self tests before or knew of others who had conducted self tests, and concluded it was consistent with how they felt.
Many of those who doubted the figures had either never conducted any tests, but did not trust anything to do with statistics released by the government or the media. Some of those surveyed said they had been in contacted with someone who tested positive for Covid, yet they tested negative, making them doubt the tests.
A consistent testimony from the sample surveyed was that the British media was not trusted when it comes to news about covid , but those who expressed doubt admitted that the media could only go by the figures they are given from the Nhs.
Analyst Terry Edwards said: ”one interesting thing from the survey so far is that the media is not consciously aware of the overall impact of each one of them reporting about doom on the same day and how that feeds through to those studying their collective reporting given some of the reservations and skepticisms people have about mainstream news.
”When you have five or more media publications all reporting high figures of infection or death rates, you also have people thinking, this is all propaganda, they are shouting at me! In reality each media outlet wants to give its audience the news they have received, but because the news is bad and negative, it has a negative effect in the minds of some people”.
Questions about the public’s views on reported statistics about Covid -19 deaths were added to earlier research conducted before christmas which is to be added to those statistics, since the participants of that survey were not questioned about their views about rising infections.
On Wednesday 183,037 daily cases were reported for the whole of the UK – a record at the time – although this figure included a backlog in some nations from before and during the Christmas period, with five days of case data included for Northern Ireland. Thursday’s newly reported cases for Wales covered a two-day period.
The daily case figures do not include reinfections and not everyone who is infected has symptoms and takes a test, meaning despite cases reaching new highs the true number of infections will be higher still.
This publication has been instructed not to report on hospitalization rates after a Daily Mail Online publication exposed corrupt statistics in the way the numbers are reported.
We plan to conduct our own research on hospitalisations arising from covid-19 in due course.
In the meantime, with the new year at the door, members of the public are urged to exercise due caution, but not be unnecessary alarmed by a virus that may not be as serious as some fearmongers may be innocently or deliberately leading the public to believe.
Until independent and credible verification of the seriousness of the omicron virus is confirmed, it should be treated as potentially more than a serious flu which people would rather not catch in any circumstances.
South Africa has said its hospitalisations rates are falling , and the World Health Organisation has said there is optimism for the year ahead that the omicron virus can be beaten. The hope is that there won’t be another variant up next year, but even then what matters more is how such a variant is handled.