Fox News celebrates its contribution to the pandemic


WaPo had a good editorial about Fox News and their heroic role in the pandemic today. Some of my favorite quotes:

“Just nine days after calling the pandemic a hoax, Hannity said, “This program has always taken the coronavirus seriously. We’ve never called the virus a hoax.”

“The liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America reported on Oct. 5: “Fox pushed a claim undermining vaccines during 99% of the days in the past six months.”

“A working paper from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology found that “watching one additional hour of Fox News per week for the average household” in May-June 2021 reduced “the number of vaccinations by 0.35 to 0.76 per 100 people.”

“While its hosts attack vaccine mandates as “totalitarian tactics,” Fox itself requires that anyone entering its building must either show proof of vaccination or submit a daily test.”

“Their cynicism is galling. It suggests that Fox hosts aren’t lunatics or fanatics. They are merely amoral opportunists who are willing to kill their viewers to gain ratings.”

I’d say that last quote just about sums them up.

On a somewhat related note, vaccines are now widely available in Vietnam. And the government has mandated that nobody who’s not vaccinated can go to the hospital for treatment. Of course, this makes perfect sense, since so many staff members and other patients have caught Covid from a patient who has it. Maybe we ought to try that here.

In my last post, I was skeptical of the popular narrative that we had turned the corner on the fourth wave of the pandemic. Now look at the numbers: Daily new cases are essentially unchanged, and deaths are up an average of about 700 per day. I repeat: We’re definitely not out of the woods yet. I want to extend my thanks to Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, and of course Fox News for doing their best to keep deaths growing at a good clip. Great job, guys!

The numbers

These numbers were updated based on those reported on the Worldometers.info site for Sunday, October 10.

Month

Deaths reported during month

Avg. deaths per day during period

Deaths as percentage of previous month’s

Month of March 2020

4,058

131

 

Month of April

59,812

1,994

1,474%

Month of May

42,327

1,365

71%

Month of June

23,925

798

57%

Month of July

26,649

860

111%

Month of August

30,970

999

116%

Month of Sept.

22,809

760

75%

Month of Oct.

24,332

785

107%

Month of Nov.

38,293

1,276

157%

Month of Dec.

79,850

2,576

209%

Total 2020

354,215

1,154

 

Month of Jan. 2021

98,604

3,181

119%

Month of Feb.

68,918

2,461

70%

Month of March

37,945

1,224

55%

Month of April

24,323

811

64%

Month of May

19,843

661

82%

Month of June

10,544

351

53%

Month of July

8,833

287

84%

Month of August

31,160

1,005

351%

Month of Sept.

56,687

1,890

182%

Total Pandemic so far

735,508

1,234

 

 

I. Total deaths (as of Sunday)

Total US reported Covid deaths as of Sunday: 735,508

Average daily deaths last seven days: 2,621

Average daily deaths previous seven days: 1,945  

Percent increase in total deaths in the last seven days: 2.6%

II. Total reported cases (as of Sunday)

Total US reported cases as of Sunday: 45,283,553

Increase in reported cases last 7 days: 765,116 (= 109,302/day)

Increase in reported cases previous 7 days: 767,454 (= 109,636/day)

Percent increase in reported cases in the last seven days: 2.6%  

I would love to hear any comments or questions you have on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com.

 

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