You’ve heard the old adage, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Today that’s ever so true.
Back in the late 50s and early 60s, before The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson hosted a daily quiz show called, “Who Do You Trust?” That same concept holds true today during this lockdown, quarantine, pandemic, or whatever you want to call it.
In fact, you can’t turn around today, even in the comfort of your own home, without being bombarded with news, information, advice, insight, cautionary tales, tales of woe, etc., etc., etc. having to do with the coronavirus – or is it, corona virus – or is it COVID-19, or Covid-19, or Covid19? Zzzzzzzzz.
Of course, whenever there is an epidemic (or, in this case, pandemic) or a catastrophe, or some other affliction or calamity, the news media is generally first to jump on the bandwagon. And this has been no exception. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a topic that has been more used, over-used and abused than this one.
This is also no exception when it comes to trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Case in point: After hearing a doctor exclaim on the news that one of the early signs of contracting the virus was dry mouth, I mentioned that to my doctor. He said that he had never heard of such a thing – an opinion which also was confirmed in the news media..
OK. Let’s review. I started looking around and found one doctor saying one thing and other doctors saying the exact opposite. The news media report both, both from supposedly expert sources, both diametrically opposed to one another.
Back to Johnny Carson. Who do you trust? The New York Times? CNN? Fox News? At this point, and this goes well beyond coverage of the virus, based on personal experience, I’m inclined not to believe any of them.
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