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.”
Oliver is a crafty liar. Notice how the liars are poi nting to hcq without the zinc, constructing strawman that others are touting hcq as a cure, when no honest person makes that assertion sinve hcq only acts to reduce inflammation and ferries zinc into infected cells where the zinc attacks the virus. Oliver; liars gonna lie, some more deviously than others.
When in a Pandemic a man spreads disinformation it can kill.
This guy is evil.
Never heard of him
If people are listening to other sources for information it is because they have lost all trust in the news media and in scientist.
The story about the boy that cried wolf comes to mind.
Scientist and the news media in general have been pushing a biased narrative for at least the last 70 years. Everything is a crisis that requires the government to gain more control over our lives and more money out of our pockets.
At this point in time I am a agnostic when it comes to the coronoavirus.
This is the dweeb that went after OAN a couple weeks ago, a man who makes 2 million a year was criticizing Graham Ledger, who makes 150K a year.
The ‘rats are worried
I disagree with both of you. Seek and Find provides a service. I would not have seen this had it not been for him posting it.
It’s always good to know what the enemedia is doing. JO is a member of the enemedia and he can still go entertain himself.
But I have family members that watch him. So it’s good to have rebuttals at the ready. Tough to do if you aren’t allowed to post it.
How does he know what is ‘misinformation;?
Everything is “misinformation” if it doesn’t help the liberal agenda.
Give the guy a break. He is not 100% wrong. Maybe 99% but not 100%.
The 1% that he got right: The Coronavirus is much more deadly than the flue.
My best example is New York City where about 1 of every 1000 residents have died from complications brought on by the Coronavirus. About 10,000 deaths and something around 9,000,000 residents.
This is not the flu. It happened in a little over a month and with only a fraction of the population infected.
“Specifically, 40% of Americans think this but in fact, it is not true. Coronavirus is many times deadlier.”
11 people on the fire department that I retired from tested positive 3 weeks ago. Only one developed any symptoms. They all have “recovered” and now test negative. The one guy who had symptoms still has them because they were from.his seasonal allergies. If they were not firefighters none of them would have been tested.
According to a recent study from Stanford this thing was 50 to 80 times more prevalent in the county they looked at than the official numbers indicated. That means that it is also 50 to 80 times less lethal. This means, John Oliver that it’s lethality is probably more similar to the common cold than the flu. Both of those ailments kill thousands of vulnerable people in this country every year.
All the stupid idiots who watched him on the Daily Show grew up and now watch him on HBO because he’s like so smart and stuff.
#OkChina
NOBODY holds the patent on misinformation about the COVID-19 Wuhan virus. What the Left has is deliberate DISINFORMATION on what the virus is, and the means by which it is to be combated. More money and more money, for every pet project that leads to the Green New Deal, forever lockdown until people, prisoners in their own homes, go on a raging rampage, and bringing to a virtual standstill all forms on economic activity not specifically permitted by government orders and edicts, are all part of THEIR plan.
Even Bernie Sanders is getting out of the way of THIS brand of command-and-control economic and social practice. Socialism has nothing at all to do with this kind of collective madness.
What does he have to say about the really spot on estimates of the “models” which are ultimately responsible for shutting down the economy, for creating the fastest increase in the rate of unemployment, for killing the greatest bull market in history? Oh yes, it was all Trump’s fault. Nothing about Pelousy The Ripper, Cuomo The Godfather, and deBlabbermouth The Blabbermouth!
Violent oppression is the inner craving of every scum Democrat.
Thank you. I had to turn it off. Even after I unplugged it the damn thing was still registering.
John Oliver - a typical liberal late-night host, except he gets more agitated and can use the F-word.
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