Posted on 04/20/2020 7:32:22 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Last Week Tonight, John Oliver unpacked another “brutal week” of coronavirus dominating the news but saw a silver lining in Dame Judi Dench’s dance abilities on TikTok.
That said, Oliver dove deep into the misinformation being spread about coronavirus. This includes claims that microwaving mail can kill the virus and that breast milk and garlic can help prevent it. The wide spread of misinformation has led to the most recent protest against stay at home orders.
Oliver points out that many people — including these protesters — think that coronavirus is less deadly than the flu. Specifically, 40% of Americans think this but in fact, it is not true. Coronavirus is many times deadlier. “Comparing coronavirus to the flu is like comparing Jeffrey Dahmer to OJ Simpson,” Oliver jokes. He then adds, “Bad information is not only frustrating and dangerous, it can force us to stay at home longer.”
It is here where he starts unpacking all of the misinformation coming out from people like televangelist Kenneth Copeland and Rush Limbaugh, who had said that “panic is not warranted” when the pandemic started.
“The problem is, many in conservative media have found it easy to fold this virus into narratives they have been carefully building up for decades,” Oliver said. “Limbaugh has endlessly pushed his “four corners of deceit” on his radio show. This includes: government, academia, science and media which all happen to be important groups to listen to during a public health crisis. On top of that, he has established his show as a sole outlet worth trusting — which gives him power.”
Oliver then pivots to Fox News which, early on, reported the coronavirus warning as a hysterical attack by the media to derail Donald Trump. However, when people started dying due to the virus, they went from downplaying the warning to downplaying the deaths.
Fox News underestimated the danger of the coronavirus early on but as the death toll mounted, they were behind the scenes suspending non-essential business travel and had their employees cancel in-person meetings and summits. They also encouraged them to conduct business via Skype. According to Oliver, they did this because “they only tend to believe these things on television for money.”
He added, “The problem is Trump is the subject of this misinformation and he is also the target of it.” Trump pulls talking points from what he sees — and that is Fox News.
At one point, Steve Hilton said that the cure is worse than the problem itself. Days later, Trump reiterated that during pressers.
“It’s pretty depressing to see the press parroting what he heard on Fox News the night before,” said Oliver. He adds that Trump has access to the top experts in the world yet he still gets advice by watching TV.
Another bit of misinformation harvested by Trump was when a supposed Stanford School of Medicine advisor named Gregory Rigano said that the drug hydroxychloroquine was a potential form of treatment for coronavirus. The next day, Trump took this information and ran with it even though Stanford School of Medicine came forward to say that Rigano was not an advisor and they were not involved in the study.
“The feedback loop between Fox and Trump has run way ahead of the science here,” said Oliver. Fox News continued to advocate for hydroxychloroquine and as the media frenzy continued, the efficacy of the drug went from being a scientific issue to a political one. He pointed out, “Anyone who wants more ethical studies on the drug will be seen on the right as a Trump hater. That being said, because of all of the hydroxychloroquine talk, existing patients with lupus who need the drug weren’t able to get their prescriptions refilled.
“The skills required to produce tv and to govern are very different — unfortunately we have a president who doesn’t know the difference,” said Oliver. Even at the start of his term, Trump told top aides to think of each day as an episode as a television show where he vanquishes rivals.
“We have a network and president who thrive on division feeding on one another at time when we desperately need a unified response to a public health crisis,” states Oliver. The aforementioned protests were fueled by misinformation and also led to Trump to tweet “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!”, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!” All of this at a time when 66% of Americans admit that it’s dangerous if the stay-at-home orders are lifted too early.
Oliver, like many of us, want all of this to be over. And it is here where he gets personal, saying he’s known people who have died from coronavirus. He also knows people who are taking hydroxychloroquine because they think it will give them immunity and he also knows people with lupus who are down to their last doses of hydroxychloroquine.
“It makes me f___ing furious,” he bluntly said before adding, “The fact is the fastest way for this to be over is for all of us to remain united in this very difficult task. The only way that happens is if we have trusted, well-informed leadership which, unfortunately, we don’t.”
Not very bright, is he? Must be the accent.
Who even watches that guy???
Is this your favorite show or you just wanted to post Leftist propaganda without comment?
Who is John Oliver again?
Is he the one who begged Donald Trump to run in 2016 because he thought his candidacy was too ridiculous for words?
Fauxnoose? Guess the lefties haven’t gotten the memo yet. Pretty sure a lot of conservatives gave up on fauxnoose several years ago. A couple of shows, perhaps are still worthwhile but as a “hole”, nah. Sort of cnn light these days.
Gee, I wonder if he was equally outraged over Italy’s “Hug a Chinese person” event in February or ones like Cuomo and DeBlasio telling people to go to Chinatown and celebrate their New Year? Would not hold my breath.
What a moron.
>>>He also knows people who are taking hydroxychloroquine because they think it will give them immunity and he also knows people with lupus who are down to their last doses of hydroxychloroquine<<<
Yep, and I was abducted by Aliens last night.
George Costanza said it best, “it’s not a Lie if you believe it”.
I call b.s. He wants this to drag out for as long as possible.
And it is here where he gets personal, saying he’s known people who have died from coronavirus.
I call b.s.
He also knows people who are taking hydroxychloroquine because they think it will give them immunity
I call b.s.
and he also knows people with lupus who are down to their last doses of hydroxychloroquine.
I call b.s.
He’s a comedian and now he wants to be taken seriously? He’s playing the Jon Stewart card, spouting supposedly serious talk, but if called on it, responds with ‘hey, I’m just a comedian’. I have never watched more than two minutes of the show. That was enough to get the drift.
I see, Trump is a dummy but 66% of the public with no background in efficacy of drugs, running a country, or even being capable of operating a multiple billion business are more innately intelligent to know when the country should be reopened. Oliver, you are an ass.
John Oliver can go entertain himself.
Great observation. Why pot crap? At least Old Economy buyer posts a pic of Joe Goebbels with it.
I used to be part of a discussion group that was geared toward farming and ag people. The young farmers quoted Oliver like what he said was the gospel truth. Sad.
This is the big, foundational assumption. We don't have any clue as to the real mortality rate, because we have no clue as to the penetration of the cirus into the American populace. They assert that the mortality rate is huge based on (IMO deliberately) faulty data regarding the number of infected. Others assert that the infection rate, being based on only those with frank symptoms, and often without actual testing, means that the mortality rate is much lower than is currently thought.
The mortality rate WILL end up much lower than current estimates, once good data is known regarding infections, and once the chicanery of counting those not tested for the virus and those who died from aggravated comorbidities as CCP virus deaths is weeded out (this is against proper counting procedures, and is motivated by the federal bounty money for each CCP virus hospitalization, ventilation, and death).
Just like with global warming, they assert the absolute worst and expect everyone to panic over their nightmares, rather than assessing the knowns and unknowns, and determining that we should prepare for the worst probable outcome, while searching for data to allow lessening any restrictions emplaced.
He is berating Trump and Fox for being divisive, while calling for unity.
John Oliver - Completely worthless POS
Did Trump ever cash his campaign contribution?
These days the FOX News Channel is at best a centrist leaning network with an ever growing liberal bias, but in the MSM world of 2020 it qualifies as an “extremist conservative” mouthpiece. It shows you what highly “educated” puppets all these leftist media personalities truly are. They’re not capable of one moment of original thought and objectivity. They spew whatever talking points their leftist masters are feeding to them.
He needs to ask Klobuchar how her husband was treated and then ask himself who is spreading misinformation.
Hint: it’s the same networks that spread the fake Russia collusion story for 3 years...
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