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.

@formerbabe

Does it matter that the risk is smaller (not tiny) thy the risk to another aged adult? Should that stop being reported because you don’t find it that important because the risk is “tiny”? From the beginning the trotted out line has always been that children and young people are safe. It was a lie and now we’re seeing that. I’ve dealt with multiple COVID deaths this week that were people under 40 years old. There is a number still alive in ICU. This was unheard of before and something we were told would never happen. It’s a disturbing trend and the untruth needs debunking.

So? Like I said I know younger people can die but if the percentage of under 50s dying from this is at about 2% of the total figure, I'm not going to be particularly worried about myself.

If they show a news report about a woman my age dying, I'm not plunged into a pit of anxiety over it because I'm aware that statistically I'm at a low risk.

@niceplumpbird

People need to see what is really happening but as someone with Covid, I just find the news articles terrifying tbh

I hope your recovery goes well @niceplumpbird. Everyone I know who has had it (variety of sexes, ages and levels of fitness) have not needed hospital treatment and I'm sure it will be the same for you. All the best .

Just acknowledge it’s happening.
Done. Acknowledged. Noted. Many times over. Next slide, please.

find it appalling that people are dying and loved ones aren't allowed in to say goodbye, yet every news report has a camera crew inside a hospital getting close up and personal interviewing anyone they can telling us all how bad it

A few journalists bears no comparison to floods of relatives and the hospital has a responsibility not to put relatives in harm's way whereas journalists can take risks on their own account as professionals. Ultimately they're giving the news so others won't have to have their relatives there is any shape or form which makes your disgust a bit odd.

@JanuaryJonez

I disagree OP.

I live in a popular and very sociable city and still know hardly anyone whose had it or had it badly, although many friends of friends have now been getting it.

There was also a thread on here in early January about what symptoms to expect with a lot of people saying "you are overwhelmingly likely to be absolutely fine". So it is very easy to end up thinking it's someone else's problem and start to relax your own rules.

Regularly seeing footage of hospitals under pressure and patients really struggling is a timely and necessary reminder of what's really out there IMO.

How effective do you think this 'frequent and timely' reminder is?

For fear of causing offence, many HCPs are obese. They drink fairly heavily. They smoke. Yet every day if their working lives they deal with people whose condition has either been caused by or exacerbated by these lifestyle choices.

Yet that evidently doesn't act as a timely reminder'.

That's because it doesn't work like that.

Yes, there may be the odd person living in a 'safe-feeling' area, sticking to the rules who was about say Sod It and throw a 400 person garage party - but saw that evening's rolling 'inside ICU' piece and thought Ooer, Better Not! ...but I doubt it!

FTR I have a BMI the wrong side of 30, I drink more than the government guidelines 😂, and am a HCP.

People don't tend to think : 'That could be me'. It doesn't work like that.

@Jourdain11

It might be the truth but it's not balanced. The BBC seem disturbingly under government control. They question virtually nothing. It is a bit weird.

The Government have threatened to take away the BBC's funding unless they toe the Party Line.

This should be public knowledge.

@biscuiteer

I wonder how someone who just finished their shift would feel reading this. We owe them so much and right now they are bearing the brunt of this every single day so we don’t have to. Maybe it’s not just about us seeing it on tv and our reactions, but that nurses and doctors, all the staff affected know it is being shown- for them to know it’s being covered... and it’s utterly horrendous right now, it’s happening to people of all ages, be careful, respect the rules, listen, take care of yourselves and please do what you can- which is frankly not asking for much at all compared to what we are all ask the NHS and frontline staff to do.

People 'just finishing their shift' have commented on here that they, too, can't see the point of it, and feel The Crying Nurse is being exploited, and feel a bit offended at the notion that the entire workforce will have PTSD when this is over.

Yep, we are all sobbing, inwardly and outwardly, it's not a pity contest

My field is behaviour change communication.

For years I worked in sustainability and then in healthcare. Now I do a mix of the two.

Negative messaging like this does not work to change behaviour. We know that. It’s why the polar bear plight stories never worked when we first started trying to get people to move to climate friendly behaviour.

It’s too big. Too frightening.

What works instead is to demonstrate social norms that reflect the behaviour you want to create.

@TaraRhu

If you read certain papers like the daily mail you will see there are plenty of people who think covid is a hoax and that most of the nhs is deserted. You will see people in high risk groups saying they don't care about covid regardless of their vulnerability to it and the resources they would take up if they got it. This foiotage is for them.

...and you reckon they're listening? And you're not bothered about the compassion fatigue this is causing?

To someone else: if you reckon your everyday Covid Denying DM reader can be reached by the nightly cry-fest on the BBC, you're more optimistic than me!

@Emeraldshamrock

I think people need to see inside the hospital it definitely shocked me I've stuck to the rules completely. We lot 3 family members all 3 late 60's.

I am sorry to hear about the loss of three family members; but could it be those deaths that make you feel 'shock' rather than footage of strangers in hospitals, night after night?

@Beachcomber

I watched the BBC report last night and I was really appalled by the levels to which they have sunk. It was not news it was propaganda. We were shown a male nurse breaking down on being made to remember how he felt like he was dying when in the grip of covid infection. Bodies in a morgue and a close up of a muddy grave being dug then panning back to show a large muddy graveyard with open prepared graves no doubt there in readiness for You, The Viewer. All this was accompanied by a voice over narrating these images of doom. Cut to Our Only Hope - a brave but exhausted doctor in scrubs urging us to have the vaccine.

The whole thing was sickening. It's not news or journalism. It's heavily scripted and directed propaganda designed to scare the population into obedience. The crying nurses are being cynically filmed to guilt people into compliance. Surely nobody actually believes that the government or the BBC give a shit about overworked, underpaid, exhausted nurses?

I was really shocked to see this blatant propaganda on the BBC and no matter what I think of covid, vaccines, the way the government has handled things, the NHS, etc, my main takeaway from the whole thing is that I find it deeply disturbing to have it demonstrated so obviously to me that the BBC is an untrustworthy propaganda machine for the government.

A free press is one of the pillars of democracy.

I'm in no way saying that I don't believe covid to be a serious problem or the vaccine to be untrustworthy (although I do think it is under rested). The BBC report did scare me but not in the way it was intend to! It didn't make me more scared of covid it made me worry about how the media is increasingly being used to manipulate public opinion on all manner of subjects and how they aren't even attempting to be particularly subtle about it.

Yes. 100%.

@shindiggery

find it appalling that people are dying and loved ones aren't allowed in to say goodbye, yet every news report has a camera crew inside a hospital getting close up and personal interviewing anyone they can telling us all how bad it

A few journalists bears no comparison to floods of relatives and the hospital has a responsibility not to put relatives in harm's way whereas journalists can take risks on their own account as professionals. Ultimately they're giving the news so others won't have to have their relatives there is any shape or form which makes your disgust a bit odd.

What part of 'loved ones aren't allowed in to say goodbye' do you not understand. A reporter can be there when the loved one dies but the relative can't. Much the same as reports from care homes. It seems immoral to me.

The Government have threatened to take away the BBC's funding unless they toe the Party Line

Actually they don't need to threaten it - it's already implicit in the way the BBC is funded

Put simply, you don't bite the hand that feeds you

It was not news it was propaganda.

That is the way the BBC operates these days.

GPs surgeries seem to have been closed since last March and trying to get in is like trying to get into fort knox, my question is... what are GPs doing, i know they are doing phone appointments, they have always done that and video calling but , i wondered, will surgeries not being full, could they not be used for vaccinations,

@earnshaw47 I’ve physically been into the GP surgery 4 times in the last month and have an appointment next week. Also had 5 telephone consultations. GP’s are open, if yours aren’t you need to be asking direct questions.

We're in over load with it so it becomes the norm loose any impact.

I’m avoiding BBC news because of this at the moment. I really enjoyed ITV news the other day which led with US elections and only came be Covid much lower down the running order and less dramatically. Pouring over the death stats is macabre and disrespectful in my view.

@earnshaw47

GPs surgeries seem to have been closed since last March and trying to get in is like trying to get into fort knox, my question is... what are GPs doing, i know they are doing phone appointments, they have always done that and video calling but , i wondered, will surgeries not being full, could they not be used for vaccinations,

My local health centre is the same. Like you, I wonder what they are actually doing other than the extra stuff they have always been doing.

GP’s are open, if yours aren’t you need to be asking direct questions

When my GP rang back I did ask questions, and the answer was that I could only see him privately

I've mentioned this on here before and been called a liar for my pains - which is unfortunate, but doesn't change the facts

@earnshaw47

GPs surgeries seem to have been closed since last March and trying to get in is like trying to get into fort knox, my question is... what are GPs doing, i know they are doing phone appointments, they have always done that and video calling but , i wondered, will surgeries not being full, could they not be used for vaccinations,

My daughter and future son in law are GPs. They are working 14 hour days with minimum breaks. They are seeing Covid19 patients but without the PPE provided in hospitals. We source data their FPP3 masks privately.

On top of ordinary GP work, they are running vaccination clinics.
They are going into nursing homes and in some cases hospices.

GP surgeries are definitely not closed but they are a bit overwhelmed with demand.

@Puzzledandpissedoff

GP’s are open, if yours aren’t you need to be asking direct questions

When my GP rang back I did ask questions, and the answer was that I could only see him privately

I've mentioned this on here before and been called a liar for my pains - which is unfortunate, but doesn't change the facts

If that is the full story (assuming you haven’t missed out the bit where they offered you a video appointment and you turned it down), then you need to complain to the CCG in the first instance, and switch GPs as soon a possible.

GP surgeries are being used for Oxford vaccination. Obviously they cannot be used for Pfizer. If GPs spent all day vaccinating who would do the GP work?
Video consultation is an appointment.

At their practice the senior partners drove in their own time to collect vaccines so they could offer their usual work and vaccination as an add on.