When SARS-CoV-2, formerly the novel coronavirus, was first recognized, the media absolutely pounced on the opportunity to fear monger. They made it sound like the end of the world. The virus destroyed China, even though the numbers provided at the time weren't all that bad. We couldn't let it get as bad here as it was in China.
When the virus hit Italy, the media took a complete one-eighty. Suddenly, Italy screwed up and China was praised for how well they handled everything. Of course, there have been legitimate questions raised regarding how well we can trust China regarding what was happening in China.
This crisis meant that we had to listen to the experts. By listening to the experts, they actually meant to listen to the media's portrayal of the experts. The CDC and WHO were almost calming compared to the panic fueled by the media. Unfortunately, their websites weren't designed very well to let us know what was actually changing. Instead, we were expected to trust the media after they had destroyed their credibility on this issue.
The mask fiasco took my frustrations with the media to another level. Initially, they discouraged us from wearing masks. Masks were not supposed to be as effective as social distancing, and masks could give us a false sense of security. Even worse, we would end up touching our faces more, increasing the odds of catching the virus.
Eventually, they completely reversed course. Evidence emerged that although masks weren't effective at keeping you from becoming infected, they were effective at preventing people who didn't know they had it because they were asymptomatic from spreading the virus. The WHO contradicted this claim by stating that asymptomatic spread was rare, which led to discussions about asymptomatic versus pre-symptomatic spread.
The media did an absolutely horrible job with their messaging. Instead of telling us that new evidence was pointing to benefits outweighing concerns, the acted as though all members of the scientific community simultaneously changed their minds, and every concern they previously raised mysteriously vanished. It was even now viewed as common sense that we should have defied what the scientific community was telling us from the very beginning. Meanwhile, anyone who said what we were previously told had to be silenced.
When we were first told that we should not be wearing masks, there was a shortage. There were even stories about how horrible it was whenever stores made N95 masks available to the public because front-line workers needed them more. This is precisely why the media made sure that they were talking about all masks. After the media reversed course, they used the shortage to defend telling us not to wear masks. The shortage of higher quality masks such as N95s was supposedly why they told us not to wear any masks. Even Anthony Fauci joined this narrative. His changed stance couldn't be because he was wrong. It had to be because other masks were in short supply. Sorry, but claiming that the reason for discouraging all mask usage was because of a shortage of some masks was a lie.
Throughout the pandemic, reliable information was far too difficult to find. What should have been our primary source of information, the media, clearly lacked credibility. Health organizations were overly dependent on the media for messaging. This could have been handled so much better.
There's a lot that I don't know about the pandemic. This is because I don't trust anyone. How many people were really infected? How many people really died? How much damage was caused by our solutions? Odds are, we will never know.
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