Does anyone find sobbing nurses etc in The News every night, in any way helpful?

[Miljea]

.... or does this footage rapidly lose its impact?

I sort of feel 'Yes, we know, and if the first months of footage failed to shock and awe, this won't!'. If anything, all it does is to numb people.

Ditto the non-contextualised rolling statistics.

Do you think it's an actual strategy, to bombard us with this? If it is, I fear it's not working.

FTR I'm coalface, Covid facing, full PPE NHS, tho not ICU.

But I have got up and personal with Covid that is killing people. Including in ICU.

But I don't think the News' blanket slightly blurry footage of HCPs all kitted up going about their business, interspersed with interviews with sobbing nurses- really helps. I have even heard the 'for God's sake, it's their job' remarks (at the hairdressers, when they were briefly open, TV on).

That person was argued with by her mate, but I do wonder whether too much of this sort of coverage makes people weary of it.

[IShavedMyHairOff]

odfod

[TorringtonDean]

Good grief! I thought someone had revived this zombie thread to hang their head in shame at such disrespect for those fighting the virus and saving lives. But no, an advert instead for fake news. Typical.

[istherelifeafter40]

Puzzledandpissedoff
It is possible to have a minute of silence for instance. It doesn't take much to organise. I am not the only one making this observation. I've read a piece by Polly Toynbee where she said exactly the same. The British somehow can't acknowledge the horror. Don't want to, as this thread demonstrates.

This is what she wrote:
"Yet still there’s something missing, in a national sense of the true horror that has descended on us. A plane crash, an earthquake, wildfires, the twin towers falling – those shockingly visual news events immediately clutch the heart. These pandemic deaths outpace those from the blitz and flying bombs (estimated at 61,000 deaths), yet somehow, the ONS daily tolling the bell for our fast-rising dear departed hasn’t shaken the country enough"

[istherelifeafter40]

Forgetmenot157
No one showed a single picture of a patient (data protection), let alone a dying one. Cancer hasn't shut down the whole world, it's not exactly what defines everyone's life (versus some people's lives who are directly affected by it; we are affected by covid).

Every single country bar the ones with no freedom of press showed the images of hospitals becoming overwhelmed. I remember a Spanish hospital with people waiting for admission lying along the corridor on the floor.

It is reported because it is news. It is reported because this is what happening to the NHS right now, which is supposedly our national treasure. This is what's happening to people. You might not like it, no one likes it, it's horrifying. But to demand it is not shown is bizarre. Hospitals are in a condition when they cannot adequately care for patients. You don't want to know this?

[Forgetmenot157]

@istherelifeafter40

I wonder if the people who don't want to see this footage are English, white English? Are their Scots? Caribbean? What is your ethnicity? What is your cultural background?

Can't stop being amazed at this thread. I thought I knew British culture, stiff upper lip, not process your feelings, whatnot. Then I was surprised there was no grieving for the dead of the first wave, no public day of memory, no acknowledgement, that sort of thing. No sense of real grief, like there was in Italy. Just the endless repetition that these people has underlying conditions.

And now, people obviously don't care, don't want to know, don't emphasise. I find it extraordinary.

My grandfather fought in the war and never spoke about it and then often said that for some people it was the war, and for other people the war was like their caring mother. I thought he meant profiteers, black market people. But I can see it so clearly now, how all this people who won't want to know, would happily not know and do whatever it takes to care only about themselves as they go about life.

I'm white and British and yea I don't want to see it.

Every day hundreds are dying of cancer and I wouldn't want videos of their final moments posted all over tv either... I don't think many people would

[Forgetmenot157]

@midlifeangst

It needs to be seen. Their pay is rubbish and they must have the well deserved recognition.

If all of this has taught us anything, its that there are far too many jobs that have shit base pay... Especially the ones that hold society together... Health care, supermarket workers, delivery drivers, bin men and teachers...

It has just opened my eyes that most people (not all) on high wages all work for private big companies that wouldn't really effect society as a whole if they were not there...

Is this bitter? Yes it probably is but I'm at the point where I don't care anymore.

When you live in a flat with 2 kids, work full time while trying to homeschool while studying for a degree... This year is taking its toll!

[WalrusWife]

150,000 people die in the world every day. Many in horrible circumstances.

[Puzzledandpissedoff]

I was surprised there was no grieving for the dead of the first wave, no public day of memory, no acknowledgement, that sort of thing

Eh?? I imagine many are busy enough without having to organise a memorial day quite yet, and we hear acknowledgements all the time with the ceaseless news about the numbers who have "sadly died". As for grieving, I'm quite sure those close to the dead are sufficiently devastated without the rest of us co-opting their pain for our own ends

Unless you're thinking of some kind of Diana-style national sobfest of course - and that seemed pointless enough at the time wihout having to repeat it

[istherelifeafter40]

I wonder if the people who don't want to see this footage are English, white English? Are their Scots? Caribbean? What is your ethnicity? What is your cultural background?

Can't stop being amazed at this thread. I thought I knew British culture, stiff upper lip, not process your feelings, whatnot. Then I was surprised there was no grieving for the dead of the first wave, no public day of memory, no acknowledgement, that sort of thing. No sense of real grief, like there was in Italy. Just the endless repetition that these people has underlying conditions.

And now, people obviously don't care, don't want to know, don't emphasise. I find it extraordinary.

My grandfather fought in the war and never spoke about it and then often said that for some people it was the war, and for other people the war was like their caring mother. I thought he meant profiteers, black market people. But I can see it so clearly now, how all this people who won't want to know, would happily not know and do whatever it takes to care only about themselves as they go about life.

[WalrusWife]

www.unicef.org/press-releases/child-under-15-dies-every-five-seconds-around-world-un-report

The world is a dark place even without Covid.

[formerbabe]

I know the NHS is under pressure but surely most of us were aware that even pre covid, shock horror, people died in hospital. Roughly 450 a day die of cancer in this country. Death isn't exclusive to covid. It's nothing new. I don't find the footage of ICU distressing despite the warnings before the news report. Gravely ill people in bed...of course it's unpleasant. I'm sure ICU wasn't a non stop party pre covid

[Jourdain11]

The balance of reporting is wrong, I'd agree. Okay, it is a health crisis - but the effects are felt far beyond that.

[WalrusWife]

I turn off crying nurses and any propaganda adverts. I’m following da roolz, staying at home etc and I don’t need to be made to feel guilty when I’m doing nothing wrong.

I also used to be a nursing officer in the armed forces including being deployed overseas and there were never any news crews around to capture what we had to deal with.

[SuperbGorgonzola]

I wouldn't agree that a doctor or nurse who cries at work is in the wrong job. Covid aside, I couldn't be a midwife dealing a stillborn baby or a nurse trying to treat a dying child. These people have always, and will always have my utmost respect and I think they're only human to process these emotional aspects of their job with tears if it helps.

I do however agree that the Covid coverage is de sensitising and possibly unimaginative journalism. As others have said, there are many groups of people who have been affected and deserve attention, not to feel like their loss and experience is nothing because they don't work in ICU.

[formerbabe]

@TorringtonDean

If you don’t like the news you don’t have to watch it but responsible people like to stay informed.

wtf

[TorringtonDean]

If you don’t like the news you don’t have to watch it but responsible people like to stay informed.

[Janegrey333]

It would be a real problem if any doctor or nurse who had cried at work gave up. I’d worry about those who so lacked empathy and humanity that they never cried.

Crying for a camera is another thing entirely.

[GreenlandTheMovie]

@Emeraldshamrock

Maybe I am not very empathetic but when I see doctors and nurses crying I tend to think they are in the wrong job rather than it having the intended propaganda impact Yes your right you're not empathetic enough, Doctors and nurses are humans with emotions.

There must be hordes of us who lack the "right kind" of empathy then.

The first 2 or 3 times I watched the now near daily bulletin on crying and emotional nurses and doctors, I took it in. But then I began to wonder why there were no similar reports on crying business owners who had lost their businesses, crying unemployed people who had lost their jobs, crying cancer patients whose surgery had been cancelled, crying families of people who had committed suicide due to lockdown, etc..

Is it unfortunate that my particular empathy cones with a questioning mind that looks fur the bigger picture?

I don't watch the BBC or itv news now because it's always the same - voice of doom, reports of crying nurses, warnings of more impending doom. Very little factual news, too many reports on very specific personal responses. I want to see whats going on outside hospitals and outside the UK. I want to hear the average age of death of covid patients alongside the daily death figures. I want facts, not personal stories ad infinitum.

[CherryRoulade]

@Splodgetastic

Maybe I am not very empathetic but when I see doctors and nurses crying I tend to think they are in the wrong job rather than it having the intended propaganda impact.

It would be a real problem if any doctor or nurse who had cried at work gave up. I’d worry about those who so lacked empathy and humanity that they never cried.

[Emeraldshamrock]

Maybe I am not very empathetic but when I see doctors and nurses crying I tend to think they are in the wrong job rather than it having the intended propaganda impact Yes your right you're not empathetic enough, Doctors and nurses are humans with emotions.

[Rah88]

@Bluethrough

Wow. The level of ignorance on MN is really worrying. The BBC is not the government. There is A LOT of tension between the BBC and the government. It is not the governments mouthpiece

A few months ago BBC political reporters were telling us all that Johnson and Biden wouldn't get on because of his friendship with Trump & that no10 would perhaps prefer a Trump win, esp as DT wants to break up the EU, now the narrative is that no10 are welcoming in Biden as more stable and more inline with the PMs thinking on (& this really gets me) on international organisations and climate change!!!
Its as if the last 4 years of BJ's support for Trump, Brexit never happened.

So i also think the BBC are more than capable of coming to the Govts rescue.

Hugh Pimm may as well work for the govt.

The BBC are reporting the turn around by Boris Johnson and the turn around by the Government. It is not their turnaround, they are simply reporting it. PM’s used to go on to BBC programmes to be scrutinised (Today on R4 especially). BJ refuses to do this. Not the fault of the BBC. Unfortunately BJ is just like DT in that he will lie and lie and speak untruths - it doesn’t seem to matter and people believe him. When people (often journalists) call this out it is too late and the damage had been done.

That said - I was spectacularly disappointed with Laura K’s questioning of Cummings. He definitely seemed off the hook.

But this is about COVID...

[Splodgetastic]

Maybe I am not very empathetic but when I see doctors and nurses crying I tend to think they are in the wrong job rather than it having the intended propaganda impact.