The madness of crowds = the media

It’s so obvious that the press are being told to censor alarmist talk about coronavirus because you’ve got to be a complete moron to think that coronavirus won’t spread. Yet, repeatedly I read articles saying “if coronavirus spreads”, when it is a lie to suggest it might not and the only truthfull phrase is “when coronavirus spreads”.

Likewise I see the Advertising Standards Authority has done what it normally does and pushed the group-think. People are rightly saying that P3 masks will reduce the infections from coronavirus, so it is entirely wrong of them to ban adverts on that basis. But yet again (as in the subject of climate), the actual science is being ignored, common sense is being ignored and insane group-think is winning.

The main difference between CV and climate, is that whilst the insane group-think on climate has been kept going for decades, the insane group-think on CV may be revealed as insane within weeks.

I see that there have been two further cases reported in Scotland. That makes 3 known with I estimate 15 cases in total. That brings us closer to the UK average – which means we are finally starting to take this seriously and look for the cases that are undoubtedly already here.

Rather than a change in infection rates, these cases appear to me to be a realisation by medics and people, that anyone could be infected. So, cases that a week ago were being ignored as “just a cough”, will now start to be caught. So, it is possible that there are hundreds of individuals spreading CV in Scotland. However, it is also possible that the increase is solely due to the first wave of incoming infection without any substantial “indigenous” infections as yet. We will only tell where we lie in this spectrum as public concern grows and CV is taken seriously (and because of the lag of cases, Scotland has been lagging the UK in taking it seriously).

What is key,  is the way the pandemic escalates in the UK. If sudden awareness that a lot of people could be infected, suddenly reveals a huge pocket (as in Italy), then we are looking at a very rapid onset. In contrast, if increased awareness does not massively increase the number of reported cases, then we may have been lucky and have a relatively low level at this early stage. That is important for us with our braindead politicians in the UK. Because if we are “lagging the pack” so to speak, it may give us an extra week between seeing the healthcare disaster happeningi in other countries … and that week may be enough to bring in the draconian pre-emptive quarantine measures that will be necessary to stop it turning into that disaster.