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.

@ssd

We should all be sobbing at what this government has done to the NHS.

Hear hear. I think it's extremely dangerous to deify the NHS staff (and I am one) because saints are ultimately martyrs and aren't allowed to ask for help...

It's true that a lot of NHS staff are burnt out and in crisis. As always, covid is a magnifying glass to preexisting issues. Overflowing icu and exhausted staff is nothing new sadly.

YANBU, in a way it concerns me how detached I feel. We don't see anybody, we don't even exercise every day anymore, our kids aren't in school. There isn't anything more I can do so I just can't bring myself to be moved by it.

Thing is, if they don't report it people scream about how it's all lies and hospitals are empty. Many doctors have asked the BBC and others to do this because they are so fed up to the back teeth of people denying and minimising. Yet when the media do it they are accused of scaremongering. They can't win.

Scaremongering is spreading fear built on false premises; this is not that. This is reporting news. Yes, it is showing people's strain and emotions, but I think it's actually important to humanise what is happening so people can see the terrible cost for the NHS and patients. I think it's important that these things do get reported. Dry daily briefings with lots of tedious slides do not convince some people of the need to take this seriously: this just might, and might save a few lives and ease the strain on the NHS.

I'm English and live in Australia, there was some footage on our breakfast show a couple of days ago of the huge fields of graves being dug and then a doctor and an elderly man who had just lost his wife. I cried at seeing this, and I'm not usually a weeper! it was so terrible and sad. I fear for all my family and their health and mental well-being having to go through this, perhaps it's being normalised up there as it's being shown all the time but I'd never seen anything so tragic.

@Billie18

I counted 7 sobbing female NHS staff in the documentary style lead item on the BBC news tonight. Including the head of the hospital mortuary who reported having to deal with a never ending supply of dead bodies (I am sorry but this prompted the sort of dark humor laugh that escapes when you know it shouldn't). Last night they also showed footage of gravediggers digging muddy graves. Tonight a couple of staff counting beds occupied as in 7,8,9 going through the numbers for emphasis. Only two patients were described in any way and both were described in terms of their age. One was "mid twenties" and the other was 28. The lead consultant did a tearful (scripted ?) piece to camera urging people to social distance or risk the consequences.

I felt that those being filmed were being used to put together a story that the news editors had decided to run with. Rather than "news" it was a cut and paste film attempting to provoke emotion and scare people.

" Including the head of the hospital mortuary who reported having to deal with a never ending supply of dead bodies (I am sorry but this prompted the sort of dark humor laugh that escapes when you know it shouldn't)."

What the hell is wrong with you that that makes you laugh?

I don't mind proper news reports, but can't stand the selfies of people crying. The news reports do remind me why it's important we are back in lockdown and to feel accepting of giving up a lot of my income and career again rather than resentful.

I don't think any rule breaker is sitting and watching the news. So I'm not sure what the point is. Its not really like reporting from a war zone, where some first person Intel might change our knowledge of the situation. I also don't really like the fact they're always keen to find HCPs crying. It would have much more impact if they got, say, an anaesthetist to calmly break run down the realities for us. They are the guardians of our lives on the operating table every day, and not given to any display of emotion - which I always find far more cutting.

I frankly don't think the people who it's intended for (the ones who purposely flout all the rules or think it's a hoax) will give a shit no matter how many people they see crying. Having worked in a public-facing role throughout (the way the public has acted over the past year has absolutely trashed my mental health and I have recently handed in my notice) I heard a young man berate and mock his friend for wearing a mask, laughing and saying "I just tell them I'm exempt, nobody can question me". Large swathes of the public simply do not care and they won't be swayed on it. This sort of reporting doesn't reach the people who need convinced, and terrifies people who might already be dealing with increased anxiety and so barely leaving the house at all.

They’re laying it on very thick at the moment. I fully appreciate it that it’s real, but I feel like we could have done with more insight 6 weeks ago, when more lives could have been saved.

I’m getting whiplash from this government’s “It’s fine, virus is gone, go back to your cubicles” to “it’s really bad, you’re going to die” propaganda. It just feels patronising. Treat people like adults and maybe we can get through this together, all of us taking an appropriate amount of care to safeguard each other.

I frankly don't think the people who it's intended for (the ones who purposely flout all the rules or think it's a hoax) will give a shit no matter how many people they see crying

Exactly - and if this is true then what the hell's the point?

Well it’s the news, they are reporting on what is happening. I don’t watch the news every day now as it’s too much for me, but I fully agree with them reporting what’s going on! It’s not an episode of Eastenders, it is an accurate reflection of the lived experience of many people right now.

I think it needs to be seen as do seriously ill patients, white and young. That way it might just get through to those who feel entitled to carry on life as if nothing has changed that in fact this strain is more infectious and is affecting younger people.
Why do people in this country not want to comply? Don't they want to get back to normal, get pubs and restaurants and clubs open to enjoy?

@DaisyHeadMaisy

YANBU, in a way it concerns me how detached I feel. We don't see anybody, we don't even exercise every day anymore, our kids aren't in school. There isn't anything more I can do so I just can't bring myself to be moved by it.

I feel the same

I would like to think the next time the government debates their pay, they should watch those videos first and then those that vote no, should pick a crying person each and go and explain their decision

To me it really seemed that the reporter deliberately provoked an emotional response from the mortuary assistant. He asked a question, she replied quickly - yes, it does get to you - and he then waited, letting the silence stretch and obviously leading her to dwell on it and get upset. It felt manipulative.

@Physer

I was hoping it might be a wake up call to those who still think it's all a myth.

Exactly.

@DfEisashambles

I don’t think it’s meant to be ‘helpful’.

It’s meant to show the reality of the strain they’re under which is immense. Easy to look on and tut at or roll eyes.

Perhaps it will help rule breakers to see the consequences for those that are vulnerable and in turn the NHS.

But the point is, even frontline NHS HCPs are rolling their eyes at it, now! Night after night!

'We've been granted exclusive, rare access to the ICU ward at St Covid's where nurse Nightingale has stood and watched helplessly as hundreds die...' Nurse Nightingale starts telling us how tired they all are, then cries. (Next news team shuffles in).

We know, those of us who have the wit to understand, know.

Then we cut to some poor, grieving relative wheeled out to try and make the hard-of-thinking understand that grandad's death has devastated the family, that he wasn't 'just a statistic'.

Yes, those who have wit to get it, do. (While wryly noting that no one would give a pygmies about grandad's death if it were flu...).

It is becoming the antithesis of 'helpful', it's boring. I believe it's having the opposite effect on many people.

While wishing to make it clear I do not see any individual family tragedy, or burnt-out HCP as 'boring'. I see the tone of the coverage as being 'not helpful'.

@Physer

I was hoping it might be a wake up call to those who still think it's all a myth.

If there are still people who think it's all a myth after nearly a year, is it really likely that they are going to change their minds because they are shown similar footage night after night?

Most of us are well aware that there is a very nasty virus out there and are doing our best to stop the spread. How will distressing us further make our best any better?

@Chimeraforce

Agree. Sick of it. I'm sure HCPs are too. I don't know how they're doing it.

I know bodies are in the chiller in hospital. They always are. Covid or not. It's horrid but death is part of life.

I'm following the rules. My kids had no education for 5 months last year now again this year. I wear a mask, avoid family and friends.
I can do no more. This corpse waterboarding makes me wonder why I'm being bombarded. Aim at rule breakers ffs.

'Corpse waterboarding'- I know this is very wrong, but that raised a smile on me! (You can tell I'm a HCP!); but yes. Exactly.

Most of us are well aware that there is a very nasty virus out there and are doing our best to stop the spread. How will distressing us further make our best any better?

Totally agree. They've been churning out the same sort of content since March. First time - impactful. Fifty fucking second time - yeah yeah, whatever.

The people who are attending raves and house parties are not sitting with a cup of tea watching the 6pm news. All it does it petrifies people who are already staying at home.

Yes it’s news. If you don’t want to know what’s happening watch a movie but some people want to be informed. It’s not scaremongering, it’s telling what’s happening. What do you think has been happening for the last ten months?

YANBU

DH is an ICU reg so about as "in the thick of it" as you can get, and he can't stand these sorts of news campaigns.

It's all part of this media strategy to make NHS workers "heroes", so the public are nicely primed to be ok with the fact that NHS workers are treated like dog shit. It allows people to focus on clapping and saying how brave and amazing these people are, and nicely distracts attention away from people who are asking very pertinent questions about why working conditions are so abysmal and what practical changes can be made to improve things.

@NeedWineNow

Actually I 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 is.

Very true.

To me it really seemed that the reporter deliberately provoked an emotional response from the mortuary assistant. He asked a question, she replied quickly - yes, it does get to you - and he then waited, letting the silence stretch and obviously leading her to dwell on it and get upset. It felt manipulative

It is manipulative, but then it's also pretty standard. As said that doesn't mean that none of this is happening, just that they'll always go for a pre-determined angle and source material to suit

I sometimes wonder how much media experience the admirers of these reports have actually had ...