Does watching the news actually make us stupider?

Getting your information primarily from legacy media may make you less scientifically literate

It’s hard to think logically about COVID if you don’t know the actual risks. I had a parent who was happy that her (healthy, minimal COVID-risk) kid was out of school as she felt COVID could kill him. When I asked what he was doing with the extra time off, she replied that he was spending more time riding his ATV. Over 50 kids die per year in Canada on ATV’s - most of them previously well - whereas only 27 have died of COVID since the beginning of the pandemic - about 13 per year - most of them with significant pre-existing conditions.

Recently I visited with an older neighbour/acquaintance who I hadn’t seen since COVID hit. She was obviously terrified that I was there, opened the door and backed off 6 feet. A short conversation ensued where we briefly commiserated over how difficult things had been because of the pandemic. I tried to inject some positivity by saying “at least it’s not really dangerous for kids - that’s a blessing”. She looked at me as if I had grown a dragon head, and said scoldingly “I saw on the news that a healthy kid died in New Mexico today!!”.

There have been some interesting man-on-the-street type interviews in the last year or two, assessing the average Joe/Josephine’s knowledge of COVID. If you believe in the construct that in a democracy, the media’s job is to create an informed public, then the results of these studies would force you to believe that the media has failed miserably.

An Australian study indicated that over a third of respondents felt that their health would be extremely or seriously affected by COVID, even though only about 10% of the population is at “high risk” due to age or health factors. This and other studies have shown that more social media exposure makes people more afraid of COVID, and more likely to “comply”, or agree to government measures.

No wonder the average citizen is happy to comply with draconian rules when they think that the risks of the disease are 100 times higher than reality.

Who is to blame for this? Government officials in several countries now admit that their strategy was to boost fear in order to boost compliance. The media is at best ineffectual and at worst complicit. One can speculate as to why the media seems intent on creating a constant drumbeat of fear since COVID began. Is this is from an overall decrease in the quality of journalism? Is the “if it bleeds it leads” truism where fear and terror sell papers (or get clicks and eyeball time) that much worse now because of financial imperatives caused by loss of ad revenue to Google and FB? In Canada and similar countries could government subsidies have made media the propaganda arm rather than the watchdog of left-wing governments? Or do all these contribute? Whatever the cause, it’s interesting to notice that the media enthusiastically highlights places where COVID is on the upswing, only to quickly skip town when COVID peaks. The story of how ICU’s are about to be overloaded, and that soon we will be rationing care and allowing people to die because of lack of ventilators, has been recycled a dozen times in a dozen places, and has yet to materialize.

Overestimation of COVID risk can be predicted by political affiliation. This is something that many of us have noted, but has been strongly confirmed by a US survey. To summarize, both Republicans and Democrats greatly overestimated COVID risk, but Dems were MUCH more irrational, for instance thinking that over 50% of COVID patients were sick enough to need hospitalization, when the actual risk at that time was somewhere around 3% (and is less now in the age of omicron which is estimated to be only 20-40% as severe as previous strains).

Legacy media is a shambles and no longer deserves our trust. The advent of cable news made it possible to pick the newscasts that suit your own worldview and political affiliation. (This ability to pick your “truth” of choice is even more enabled by the internet). Polarization is more pronounced in the USA where Fox is watched by Republicans and MSNBC/CNN by Dems. (Joe Rogan is outpacing them all, but that’s a story for another time.)

How does the average person discern truth? Some have said, and I agree, that we now need to “triangulate". If Fox and CNN say the same fact, it’s probably OK to believe it. If they differ, do your own research. As some of my favourite people say “Love one another, believe nothing, and question everything,”. But whatever you think of the merits of one network or the other, when it comes to COVID, Fox viewers have a more accurate take on the science than CNN viewers. But both need to stay wary.

Even at the top levels of our governments and court systems, hysteria seems to rule. A judge of the Supreme Court of the USA is so misinformed as to think that “We have over 100,000 children [in hospital], which we've never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators”. (The number was less than 5000, with very few in serious condition, in fact the majority had incidental positive tests unrelated to their reason for hospitalization. She was so off-base that even CNN has to criticize a left-leaning judge). How can she make good decisions with such bad information? How can we do so as a society?

Yes, people get sick and die from COVID. But if you were under 50 in Canada in 2020, you were 5 times as likely to die in a car crash. And most of those who died had pre-existing health conditions. It was when more severe strains of COVID predominated. Keep in mind this was BEFORE vaccination was available, so if public health officials believe in the efficacy of their vaccination program, they must accept that car accidents are now FAR more of a risk than COVID for most of the population.

Ideally we should understand not only overall COVID risk, but our personal risk profile. You might be quite sensible to worry about your elderly grandma who has heart disease and diabetes. But if you are lying awake at night worrying about COVID carrying your healthy 6-year-old off to the great beyond, you need a reality check. I would recommend avoiding mainstream news and hysterical social media to start.

To formulate good public policy we the public, and our politicians, need to be well informed. Let’s dial down the hysteria, and put COVID in a broader perspective.