Omicron

[harm_less]

I'm loving how all over the place the media are with regards to Omicron.

What started out as "It's a killer! It's got the right amount of spikes! Shut the borders!" is now "Might replace Delta, and we're okay with that!" Knee-jerk reporting at its very best.

Half-expecting the leader of the opposition (is there one?) to criticise the government for shutting the borders and not letting it in.

You're not wrong there snoozy.

South Africa did the right thing by reporting it. From there, it seems to have taken on a life of it's own.

Wouldn't it be great though, if it's the one that can "slay the Delta beast".

More and more COVID is driving populations into an increasing state of panic and the media are to blame for much of that. No wonder the anti-vax and loss of public freedom movements are gaining the traction they are especially with social media platforms to magnify the panic.

[Lilith7]

Yes, there's a lot of misinformation about covid & the vaccines.

[Olivemyrtle]

It's easy to throw stones at the media, but we expect them to provide news while they're trying to process all the different takes on this new variant themselves.

[yousnoozeyoulose]

True Olivemyrtle, it's ever evolving but there needs to be an element of impartiality when it comes to local media reporting.

Increasingly, we're seeing blurred lines between simple factual reporting and opinion. In the case of web-based media it's all about the clicks, which is why Stuff and NZ Herald is overloaded with one-sided opinion pieces and other Buzzfeed-lite tat their 20-something intern has uncovered while trawling through Reddit.

In the same way, the TV news seems to feel they need to drag in an 'expert' to say a piece to a socially-distanced camera or via a unflatteringly positioned webcam. When one expert says the complete opposite to another, then what exactly is an expert? Then they've got reporters intoning that "This is a bad look for so-and-so". This isn't their role. They shouldn't be telling us how we should be thinking.

It's frustrating.

Anyway, I'm not too worried about Omicron. It's just yet another 'thing' and if we start getting too focused on things then nothing else gets done.

[Olivemyrtle]

I agree that it's too soon to draw any conclusion about Omicron, good, bad or otherwise and we're in a fortunate position where we can continue with Plan A until or unless there's a compelling reason to re-calibrate.

What I will say is that opinion pieces in the media will always be 'one-sided' unless they're about an issue on which we have unanimous 100% agreement as a society, and there aren't too many of those.

I agree that the merging of fact and opinion is becoming 'a thing,' but it's as a result of media needing to provide what people are looking for. Because there are so many sources, coming from all directions - including social media, we actually expect to be able to interact with news these days, and this new approach - even on TV bulletins, is the result.

We've come a long way from the 1970s, when Philip Sherry or Dougal Stevenson would deliver a few facts, often hours, or even days old, before finishing with a firm: "And that's the news." People like my grandparents would never have thought to question it or even discuss it amongst themselves. If it came from the NZBC it had to be gospel!

[Lilith7]

Indeed - there's a lot to be said for the old style of news when they had guidelines of who, what, when, where & how. Just the facts of the situation.
Most of us can form our own views without any help from the media.

[Olivemyrtle]

Social and/or mainstream? You might be surprised if you consciously asked yourself which sources provide what constitutes 'the facts' for you.

Just harking back, again, because I think it's relevant to the discussion, when I was young, a fact was something printed in Encyclopaedia Britannica (and in many cases has long since been superseded) so getting to university and finding those 'facts' translated into discussions, with engaged and stimulating lecturers, was such an amazing feeling.

I believe that most of us certainly can form our own views but we need to be mindful that while we can have our own opinions, we can't have our own facts!

[crafters_corner]

Ah. I think I found AW. :-))

[nzoomed]

I'm loving how all over the place the media are with regards to Omicron.

What started out as "It's a killer! It's got the right amount of spikes! Shut the borders!" is now "Might replace Delta, and we're okay with that!" Knee-jerk reporting at its very best.

Half-expecting the leader of the opposition (is there one?) to criticise the government for shutting the borders and not letting it in.

So much fear over these new variants, its a joke.
Looks like the vaccine is much less effective with this version, so lots of fear in the media.
We already have doctors on the TV telling everyone to take a chill pill.
Already the doctors in South Africa are saying that it appears to be much less severe with symptoms and little to no hospital admissions which is good news.
I think its just time to move on and let it rip and become the new dominant strain, I would rather see this going round than Delta any day. Looks like many experts already agree with this.

[Lilith7]

I'm loving how all over the place the media are with regards to Omicron.

What started out as "It's a killer! It's got the right amount of spikes! Shut the borders!" is now "Might replace Delta, and we're okay with that!" Knee-jerk reporting at its very best.

Half-expecting the leader of the opposition (is there one?) to criticise the government for shutting the borders and not letting it in.

So much fear over these new variants, its a joke.
Looks like the vaccine is much less effective with this version, so lots of fear in the media.
We already have doctors on the TV telling everyone to take a chill pill.
Already the doctors in South Africa are saying that it appears to be much less severe with symptoms and little to no hospital admissions which is good news.
I think its just time to move on and let it rip and become the new dominant strain, I would rather see this going round than Delta any day. Looks like many experts already agree with this.

If that's right then I think most of us would agree with that - who knows, we may yet see covid omicron catching gatherings, so everyone can get it over with.

[king1]

So much fear over these new variants, its a joke.
Looks like the vaccine is much less effective with this version, so lots of fear in the media.
We already have doctors on the TV telling everyone to take a chill pill.
Already the doctors in South Africa are saying that it appears to be much less severe with symptoms and little to no hospital admissions which is good news.
I think its just time to move on and let it rip and become the new dominant strain, I would rather see this going round than Delta any day. Looks like many experts already agree with this.

If that's right then I think most of us would agree with that - who knows, we may yet see covid omicron catching gatherings, so everyone can get it over with.

i'll pass on that...