Perception of risk affects behavior far more than actual risk. We perceive flying to be a greater risk than driving, even if similar per capita. Because of media bombardment, we now perceive COVID to be exponentially deadlier than the common flu, which is turning out to be false.
How would we feel if the media was constantly blasting us information about everyone who got the flu during flu season, and breathlessly counted all the deaths day by day? There are tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people who die from it every year.
What kind of mass panic would it cause? What kind of long-lasting hysteria would be formed if the media reported yearly on the flu the way they do on COVID?
Yeah, it can be deadly, especially in people over 65. Not saying it isn't a bad flu. But it's not the paranoia-inducing wave of death the media touts it as. In fact, without all the nursing home deaths, we would see very little difference between it and a severe flu season.
I have been compiling data on our county. Out of 200,000+ residents, 12 have died to date from COVID, all over 65, and all but three over 75. Without the media panic nationwide, would that even be a newsworthy topic under normal circumstances? Highly doubtful.
Yes, it's a real disease. Yes, it can kill you. So can almost anything. And a year or two from now, we'll look back on it as one of the most overblown and hyperbolic events in history. And that part is the "hoax," not the strawman that "it's not even real!" that is being pushed.
Another way to view it is to compare lion to mosquitoes. Those little flying irritants kill far more people than lions do every year, but if you're out on the savanna, I guarantee you're far more worried about the "King of the Jungle" than a mosquito bite. Why? Programming.
And the argument, of course, isn't "oh well lions aren't dangerous! That's just a hoax!" Of course they are dangerous. The hoax is the terror running down your spine at a roar in the distance while being slightly irritated slapping away the insect buzzing in your ear.
And this programming becomes all the more damning when you compare it to actual statistical data that shows the U.S. very close, if not already to, herd immunity for the virus. A thread which illustrates this perfectly:
