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Notes -
Why do people care so much about the hantavirus outbreak? The ship is still all over the news and social media. The WHO director-general went to the ship personally, which further indicates that this is a really important matter. It is constantly being compared to covid. Officials keep telling people to calm down, but the way this is covered, the warnings have the opposite effect. The public response seems frantic and only serves to create more uncertainty.
And yet, it just doesn't seem that serious. Sure it can be deadly if you are infected. But from what I understand, Hantavirus mostly spreads to humans through ingestion or inhalation of fluids from rodents. There seems to be no evidence that human to human infection is something the virus is really capable of, and even if this is a strain that mutated to do that, it also doesn't spread through the air.
The most likely scenario in my mind is that hygiene issues on the ship led to a rodent infestation which infected the passengers, and that there is basically no chance that this spreads to the rest of society. It seems about as serious as a hotel giving its residents food poisoning. Terrible for those involved, but irrelevant to the broader world.
But the constant coverage makes me wonder if I am missing something important. Or is this really just a case of the media selling news by appealing to pandemic trauma?
They do?
I’ve seen more denials here on The Motte than I have seen any actual caring about the outbreak in the news or other forums. Obviously an outbreak of such virus on a cruise ship is newsworthy so there have been a few articles in local papers about it and one about two locals who were exposed on an airplane but that’s it. No alarmism whatsoever because hantaviruses just don’t transmit between humans well (or at all depending on the specific virus).
I think there is more demand for alarmism (that can then be used to point how ”the establishment” is overreacting) here on The Motte than there is any actual alarmism in the news or from officials.
Our feeds must be very different. I have seen zero discussion about the virus on The Motte, but stories keep popping up in my news feed while I have seen various subreddits bringg it up over the last few days, including today. And of course, the WHO currently has multiple articles about the virus on their front page. This seems like a lot, but it could of course just be the algorithms screwing with me.
Probably, as I have zero interest in American media or general purpose forums, what with living in Finland and all that. It is possible that the American media is sensationalist but The Motte is an international forum so a generic "why do people care" is going to be taken as "why do people everywhere (in the west at least) care" to which the answer is "actually they mostly don't seem to care".
This is the latest news here about the virus (article is in Finnish and text copy pasted here in case paywall goes up - you'll need to use google translate or something). It seems to have a very "This is very interesting but it doesn't have any effect on us" sort of approach to me.
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Top story on the BBC today, as well. I also don't know why. But I stopped trying to fathom the news cycle years ago.
Imagine there was an Ebola outbreak on a cruise ship. That would obviously also be story even though there is no risk of global pandemic or spread in western countries.
A deadly virus (in the very literal sense) outbreak in such situation is always newsworthy even though there is little risk of it spreading further.
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It's not just you. It's the top story on APnews this morning. It's been one of the top stories on there for the past week.
And one of the stories this morning is alarmism about the CDC not getting involved, which is a nice 2-for-1 of virus and Trump alarmism.
If it really is just alarmism, it just seems so irresponsible to me. I understand that the incentive of a capitalist society is to profit at any cost. But I also believe that journalists have a duty to accurately inform the population and not poke at their anxieties for no good reason. If they go too far into sensationalism and making baseless claim, they lose their purpose and reason for existing. The value they provide to society will degrade until it is completely gone.
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