My Thoughts on Covid19, TV News and the Silver Linings

As we are now in the third week of the Covid19 lockdown, I’m curious as to why people are still out in public in groups.

The government has not utilized a forceful enough approach to the social distancing policies. If fines were applied more regularly, this would force the public to stay indoors. Instead, the government are being complacent and therefore, people are then either blaming those who are not social distancing, those who perhaps don’t read the news or are less aware of the moral implications of their being outside amongst others. This is the government’s idea that if they enforce advice rather than the law, it can shift blame from themselves onto the public. So please do not blame the public as much as you blame the government, the ones with all the power and assets. It feels similar to blaming the poor for their own poverty like a bedroom tax.

“We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.” – Robert H Humphrey”

I’ve started to notice the theatrics TV news employs when speaking of this Coronavirus. Words like extreme, emergency and quickly rising are used excessively. No context is ever given.

“The number is now six times what it was last week...”

Yes, so? Is that good or bad? How old were they? How does it compare to other viruses? Did they have underlying health conditions?

I am constantly seeing, on the news, people in hospital receiving treatments, who explain their horrific experiences living with the virus and I feel very much for these people and their loved ones. I am fortunate enough for this virus to not have hit home or my loved ones, so this may be why I can comment on this with less emotion. However, for the news to consistently berede its viewers with these worrying images, obviously people are going to begin agonizing over this. It is important to view the worst case scenarios of Covid19 but more common cases with mild symptoms should be addressed as well. The job of TV news is to convince you to keep watching or come back later and watch It again. We can look at these images subjectively through a significantly emotional lens, therefore we may view this new thing as a lot worse than it is but the situation we find ourselves in is still relatively unknown. “If you believe that the unknown actually causes fear, it is important that you reconsider this inaccurate, self-limiting myth…the unknown is devoid of information. The unknown is neither positive or negative…” (Wilkins, 1998). Although, sadly, this is killing thousands of people, the UK government's scientific advisers believe that the chances of dying from a coronavirus infection are between 0.5% and 1%. The below graph indicates this by age as of March 16th:

I just feel like the news on television does not portray this balance. It’s interesting to see the news’ effect on someone. The insistence of the news to report every time the numbers rise without context, I understand, does sound scary, but I’m trying my hardest to view this crisis as objectively as possible and with context. The chances of living are massive. So, I believe the best thing for a crisis like this one is to stay up to date with cautious but sensible practice. If you regularly watched the news, keep doing that but don’t watch more if the central view of the subject is overwhelmingly negative.

Take this virus seriously of course. Don’t be a dick. Don’t go outside without an essential reason for doing so or risk infecting the most vulnerable people. But, do not obsess over the news and the number of cases and deaths, otherwise you’ll become a slave to the TV news’s hypnosis: “Things are really bad. Maybe you have it...Look at this person who suffered greatly...” The news should be treating this objectively, the facts are 99% of the Italian population who died from the virus had underlying health conditions and I’m not taking about mild asthma, I’m talking serious diseases like diabetes and heart disease according to National Institutes of Health. The majority of people (80% according to China's most comprehensive report about the outbreak published so far) who become infected have mild symptoms or show no symptoms. This should be said at least alongside the “rising” numbers of deaths and the few who experience worse symptoms. “Like a blank screen, the unknown gives you great freedom. It permits you to fill it with whatever is useful to you” (Wilkins, 1998). However, the situation we find ourselves in is not a blank screen, TV news has painted an extremely terrifying picture with a lot more black than white. So, update yourself with the mainstream news occasionally but have a look for some positive news to gain some perspective and context and of course, stay away from others out with your household, wash your hands, have a pint and wait for all this to blow over.

I’m starting to see the silver lining of this Coronavirus: it’s giving me opportunity to reset i.e. catch up on all the TV I’ve been planning to watch for years, thinking about the future, thinking and recognizing aspects of my life I took for granted such as human contact, human conversation, getting up for something even if it is work, the taste of a cold pint of Tennant’s down the pub and generally, life without restriction.

Before the lockdown, I’d actively avoided social media for about 2 years and now that I’m using it more regularly, I feel more included and more social. This goes against a lot of what I once believed. I thought social media was a scourge of sociality, hoover of self-esteem. However, after my break, I now feel closer to my friends somehow by seeing what they’re doing. There is the slight issue of materialism however, as I tend to click on personalized advertisements on Instagram that seem to know exactly what I want even when I haven’t searched for it (I wonder how they do that), sucking me into a world of investments that are not needed nor can be afforded. However, I think if I use social media attentively, i.e. occasionally throughout the day for short bursts, I believe the positive aspects of social media can outweigh the negative. The trick is to not get too far sucked into the worlds of the other and forget about your own.

Further, the environmental effects of the coronavirus are promising. There was a significant drop in air pollution observed by NASA in China’s Hubei province, where the coronavirus outbreak began in December,  slowing economic activity has driven down emissions and air traffic has taken a nosedive since the virus spread to Europe (Politico, 2020). Hopefully, more awareness of how we can significantly reduce emissions by treating the climate crisis as a crisis will continue after Covid19 is contained.

We are a lucky country due to the freedoms that we have (or had). Maybe this will help us be a little more compassionate to those less fortunate than us, to our loved ones and everyone else. Maybe we’ll appreciate the world around us more, our jobs, our colleagues, our family and our life without restriction. Then again, we might wish for social isolation after a week of returning to work and being in contact with others.

I leave you with a poem which lends this same perspective but with much more pizazz and style by Richard Hendrick;

Lockdown

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise

You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet

The sky is no longer thick with fumes

But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi

People are singing to each other

across the empty squares,

keeping their windows open

so that those who are alone

may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland

Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know

is busy spreading fliers with her number

through the neighbourhood

So that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples

are preparing to welcome

and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting

All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality

To how big we really are.

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that

Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul

Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic

The birds are singing again

The sky is clearing,

Spring is coming,

And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul

And though you may not be able

to touch across the empty square,

Sing.

Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM

March 13th 2020

References

Wilkins, W., 1998. Overcoming Fear of the Unknown. The Futurist, [online] 32(7). Available at: <https://search.proquest.com/openview/efd778e14375d254587371953f66bdf8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=47758> [Accessed 12 April 2020].

POLITICO. 2020. 6 Ways Coronavirus Is Changing The Environment. [online] Available at: <https://www.politico.eu/article/6-ways-coronavirus-is-changing-the-environment/> [Accessed 13 April 2020].