I don't want to diminish the seriousness of Covid in the least............but I want to take note of what I thought was one of the most genuinely offensive, misleading headlines I've seen concerning it.
From the New York Times, no less, reporting the U.S. death toll at over 700,000, and suggesting it was now the deadliest pandemic in U.S. history.
The latest Covid-19 deaths were concentrated in the South, and included more younger people than before. Every age group under 55 saw its highest death toll of the pandemic this August.
www.nytimes.com
While, strictly speaking, that's true (taking all reporting both from 1918, and today at face value)...........
There's a huge, glaring problem.......
The Spanish Flu, which was reported to have killed 625,000 in the U.S..............took place in a nation of 103,000,000 people.
Whereas Covid, has taken place in a nation of 330,000,000 people. Therefore, the relative impact of the Spanish Flu was much higher.
Put another way, if Covid were as deadly as the Spanish Flu, there would over 2,000,000 dead Americans, instead of 700,000.
The problem here, so far as I'm concerned, beyond the obvious, is that what would seem to be an attempt to exaggerate the impact of Covid (which hardly requires that) will serve
to diminish the threat in the eyes of many, and to further distrust in media.
There is no need to exaggerate the impact of a very serious event, reality is sufficient.