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.

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.

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

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

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.

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 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

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

@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!

@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
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?

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"

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.

odfod