Getting back to work while there’s still a place to get back to work

The Coronavirus contagion is omnipresence. All the cable networks are posting a running total of who’s got it, how many have died worldwide and then the running total for the United States. Further, they feel compelled to constantly refer to this morning, noon, and night. This constant stream of gloom is feeding the panic mentality of the population.

Can you imagine if we were treated to this every year during the annual flu epidemic? Estimates are that about 37,000 Americans will die this year from the flu. Would any of us like to see a “news crawler” on the bottom of our TV screen every day during flu season, detailing the casualties from the yearly flu? If we had this reaction every flu season, the country would have collapsed economically years ago

Sure, the current pandemic is serious but spinning it into mass extinction event is beyond the pale.  One must look at the fundamentals of who’s getting it and what shape they were in prior to getting the infection.  Data suggest that its not a mass extinction event like the bubonic plague or even the Spanish flu of 100 years ago.

Lost on the media news readers are the tremendous advances that have been made in the treatment of infectious diseases like the now politically incorrect “China Flu”.  Nope, they would rather stir up the viewers because ratings equal revenue.  Nobody is going to tune in if they’re reporting on a “cat in a tree”.

Sensationalism is paramount when attracting readers or viewer to any news organization.  Why do you think the National Enquirer writes the headlines you have seen in the supermarket checkout line? People really want to know if Hillary was abducted by aliens and that’s why she lost the presidency.

Given all the media driven hysteria that leads to a shortage of tomato soup and saltine crackers, just think what would happen if everybody would just wash their hands, sneeze into the crack of their elbow and maintain a respect for space for a couple of weeks, the country would blow through all this pandemic boo-bah.

So we can get back to work if we turn down the negative news, think logically and use a lot of common sense.