NPR is once again publishing irresponsible misleading garbage.
An entire strain of the flu was not eliminated "thanks to covid" it was eliminated because everyone collectively masked and took measures that halted the spread of airborne disease.
Think how many viruses and people could be saved if people just fucking masked, we upgraded ventilation, and took airborne disease seriously.
But NPR will never put that in a headline.
Snappy head, that!
Detail goes in the body text. First paragraph, perhaps.
@midgephoto @KevinFreitas @taylorlorenz
In this case, the information suggested was in the 4th sentence.
@stpaultim @midgephoto @taylorlorenz Definitely, I read it. My agreement is that not everyone reads the article but skims headlines and may say to a friend, “Yeah, I saw an article that said…” (which I’ve certainly caught myself doing sometimes)
Headline writing is more art than science but when it involves something like the COVID pandemic a little over-specification/clarity seems warranted.
@KevinFreitas @stpaultim @taylorlorenz
Always fair game to try to do better than the sub who wrote it and the editor who accepted it.
The best one ever was a New York paper which managed
"Headless Body Found in Topless Bar"
@taylorlorenz "Think how many viruses [...] could be saved"
Edit that?
@taylorlorenz You're looking at the bigger picture, as one should, and seeing this headline as part of a larger pattern.
I agree that victims of a defective public policy carried out at the behest of elites tend to be blamed for the damage done to them, and then isolated for triage.
This is part of an even larger pattern at NPR that stems from its growing dependence for funding on corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals.
https://chatgpt.com/share/671aec4c-c4dc-800f-afa2-d6940b7d1ed9
@taylorlorenz It gets worse:
In May 2023, PBS news commentator David Brooks revealed, on-air, his 20 year relationship with Harlan Crowe that includes multiple visits to his multiple homes. Crowe is the billionaire responsible for the ongoing corruption of Clarence Thomas. And Brooks describes him as quite a nice fellow.
He made this confession 37:25 into the 5/5/2023 PBS news broadcast.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ke30Kh7aPyQ?t=2245
And not a peep out of host Geoff Bennett or co-commentator Jonathan Capehart.
@taylorlorenz Well, what do you know? "We're sorry, but this video is no longer available."
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/may-5-2023-pbs-newshour-full-episode
Friday on the NewsHour, the latest jobs report shows another month of strong employment growth but many Americans are still choosing the gig economy over permanent jobs. New revelations about payments made to Justice Clarence Thomas' wife raise more ethical questions about the Supreme Court. Plus, the so-called Godfather of AI speaks out about the dangers the technologies pose to our society.
@taylorlorenz Ah, but here is the transcript from archive.org:
Look for the part that starts as follows:
David Brooks:
Yes, first, I should say I have been friends with Harlan Crow for about 20 years. I find him a wonderful man. He's hosted me at his home in Dallas and in New York. So, reader — viewers should know that that's my connection to Harlan.
And so that's disclosure. And that's what I wish Clarence Thomas had done in this case...
...It gets better.
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart join Geoff Bennett to discuss the week in politics, including Senate Democrats exploring their own ethical code for justices following a series of controversies involving Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and the latest on the debt ceiling debate.
@taylorlorenz but it was in the article: “Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.”
And ends with: “I think the fact that we can do that shows that we can get some things right,” he said.”
You can get mad at all platforms for title straying to click bait but at least this one still contained relevant information; I wouldn’t call the journalism misleading.
@Nahmia @taylorlorenz There would also have been more parasites, deaths of children under 5 years old and pregnant people in childbirth, as well as malnutrition, certain conditions and disabilities, or (I expect) the vast majority of unknown causes.
Speaking as someone whose bloodwork, heart monitors, and stress tests all came back "perfectly healthy", the stigma of "faking it" doesn't disappear either.
@taylorlorenz Before COVID people would go to work when sick. Pissed me off as too many times I would get sick as hell and usually just in time for the weekend. Even back then we had the ability to work at home and when I was sick that is where I stayed.
Every year I get the flu shot. I hate people who go 'what is the big deal it is only the flu'. I had influenza around 23 years ago, sick as hell with complications. Off work six weeks, multiple medications and a puffer and I have a scar on my lower left lung due to the infection. Sometime I may ask my doctor if I can get a copy of that image to show people what 'only the flu' can do to your body. When COVID hit us I had my arm out when injections became available and so far we have dodged that bullet.
Spare masks in the house, car, in my work backpack and I think there are a couple in my work filing cabinet. If I feel sick I call my team lead and tell him I am sick and working at home. Mask up when I head out to the stores when I need to buy food.
@thomastraynor I don't even have a flu horror story for why I always get the flu shot. I just find being sick to be sensory hell, so as soon as I found out that all I had to do was get jabbed with a needle and the odds were substantially better that I could avoid that for the year, I was all for it. 0.0002 seconds of pain vs a week+ of sensory hell? It's not a hard decision.
Funny thing is, I also got sick in general a lot less often once I started getting routine flu shots. Turns out, immune systems aren't like a muscle and it's actually not good to get sick on a regular basis.
(Though, it also helped that through my teens and even up to now, the education and employment systems have and continue to be incredibly intolerant of things like 'normal immune function' and 'not having conscious control of one's immune system'. 10 days of paid sick leave is all you get here, and none for casual workers (which is a lot of them, even in positions that you'd think would be permanent). I have a pretty good immune system, but one bout of the flu would probably wipe out those 10 days for me. And then I'd have to choose between knowingly going to work while sick, or losing pay and potentially my job if I take too long to get better.
COVID may have exposed how draconian and unrealistic that is to more of the public, but it hasn't led to much in the way of permanent change there. Casual workers still don't have any actual sick leave provisions, despite that many are in roles where they're mostly public-facing (and some are handling people's food, or looking after kids and elderly people). There has been no expansion to paid sick leave for permanent roles. And I doubt there ever will be - I can't think of anything that would make it happen when COVID didn't.)
This is the third paragraph and fourth sentence of the article.
"Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion."
In my view, the criticism is both inaccurate and misleading.
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