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Yes and the same is true for many things. From our local vantage point we have a hard time comparing anything that is rare. Car accidents, serial killers, HIV, liver disease -- how many people do you personally know who died from any of these? Just because I don't know anyone who has died in a car accident (let alone anyone close), that doesn't mean campaigns to get people to buckle their seatbelts were just fearmongering.
No comment on whether Covid in particular was fearmongering, but "people wouldn't have cared without the media/tickers" proves too much.
Well, we have a hard time determining relevance and rare comparisons. And I think the media and governments use that quite often to manipulate public opinion. We have a hard time figuring out what really is important and what isn’t. Is Ukraine important to people? Will your life be affected one way or another by the war? And as such why is it something that people spend a lot of time on? Or the Presidential races — has the president ever actually changed anyone’s life? We are told what to care about by the media spotlight, and the vast majority of it really doesn’t matter— or at least not nearly in proportion to the amount of coverage that those stories get.
And the death-tickers were exactly that, because they told you very little about those who were dying, and since you could die weeks after getting a positive test, it was counting current cases. and deaths of people who got sick weeks ago. The other thing left out was just how over and above the testing went. We tested everybody for COVID and used very sensitive tests. Compare that to flu testing where you only test those with pretty severe symptoms. And that’s the point, it was shoved in everyone’s face every single day to make sure that everyone was thinking about the new plague all the time. That was the entire purpose of the ticker. I have no problem with safety campaigns, I think seatbelt campaigns are good, but again, they don’t have a 24/7 ticker of car accident deaths to get people to wear them.
yes
If you claim otherwise: are you limiting this claim to USA? effects of USA presidents in USA? last N years? to personal decisions without considering say effects of nomination to the upper legislature of USA aka constitutional court? effects on large part of population, not just "anyone"?
yes (and for people in USA it also applies, effects on power market and indirect effect of wheat prices alone ensured this)
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