The Insanity of the Mainstream Media

These two headlines in the last 24 hours illustrate the innumerate and ignorant mainstream media from which we suffer.
Look at the photo. How many will catch COVID-19 in this manner? None. Literally none of the people on this beach will catch COVID-19. Per my board-certified immunologist:

I think being outside with someone is certainly safer than inside. The droplets and aerosols would disperse more quickly and widely. I guess you could walk thru someone's vapor cloud, or have it blown into you if downwind. Ambient factors such as UV light from the sun, temperature, humidity, wind, would all make a difference. 

When you combine the fact that people are staying well separated, it is an absolutely stupid illustration. Does the NYT not understand the very basics of how any virus is spread?!

It is incredible they are still relying on the completely discredited epidemiology models. They have been shown to have no skill at forecasting even two weeks in the future.


Ahhh, NYT, just about every knowledgable pundit west of the Hudson has been saying this for at least two weeks.

To use this blog as an example of the message: it is critical that rural America be
opened up or terrible food shortages may develop. We don't know for sure -- but does America and the world really want to take that chance?

Instead, the NYT and MSM mock agricultural areas for wanting to open up (see yesterday's photo at the top of the blog) even though areas outside of NYC have a tiny percentage of the originally predicted COVID-19 cases. Consider this stark statistic:

During a press conference Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted that health experts initially projected 465,000 Floridians would be hospitalized because of coronavirus by April 24. But as of April 22, the number is slightly more than 2,000.

By what measure is 2,000 hospitalizations in a state the size of Florida a crisis, let alone a catastrophe? We have many counties in Kansas that don't have a single case of COVID, let alone deaths.

There is absolutely no reason that these agricultural and food businesses, and many others, cannot be reopened with proper precautions (masks, gloves, etc.). It is growing season! We get just one each year. The United States is playing with dynamite: the possibility that the shutdown will cause far more damage than the disease.

If this essay seems emphatic, it is. The indefinite shutdown cannot and should not continue. The politicians seem far more worried about seeming to be uncaring (with their eye on unfavorable news coverage prior to the next election) rather than the overall good of the nation. We should be encouraging our government to behave responsibly (e.g., the overall good of the nation). Let them hear from you.

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