COVID, Vaccines, reliability... who to trust.
The most recent and important issue has been the vaccination mandate, but that is not issue that this article will discuss but rather the trustworthiness of the news medias over the matter.
I say trustworthiness because in the past several months politicians and especially news media have expressed their stance over the matter, but a matter that has been heavily politicized thus tainting the information providing from both left and right leaning sources.
For example, right leaning sources give date over vaccinated ad unvaccinated individuals in terms of their exposure or reaction to COVID and the variant. Once they have done this, they make sure to point out how the government and health officials affirmed full protection against COVID if vaccinated, however we see that this is not the case as vaccinated individuals can still catch the virus.
As for the left leaning sources, they provide a fair amount of information in reference to the vaccination's effect on vaccinated individuals from their reaction to the virus to the amount of transmission amounts the vaccinated. Overall, for the majority of the left's article's it seemed they prefer to protect and promote vaccines although they continue to fail. While the right leaning sources are overall more against it.
Ultimately, the vaccine have been extremely politicized to the point that it taints the statements in articles such as seen in "The Atlantic" where Tayag says that "Vaccinated people spread the virus less overall because they are significantly less likely to get infected in the first place". This would appear to be biased as the vaccine is known to not stop the virus (which was the purpose) but not it's said to lessen the effect of the virus.
Statement such as these and the different viewpoints from each media outlet, ultimately has a negative impact on the populous as they are not being properly or fairly informed over the matter at hand.
How Easily Can Vaccinated People Spread COVID? (msn.com)
Vaccinated people are less likely to spread Covid, new research finds (nbcnews.com)
Fully vaccinated and had COVID-19? No rush for a booster shot, experts say | Fox Business
This is such an important issue, and one that has lasting and possibly deadly impacts on Americans. The lack of consensus among mass media outlets on something relating to public health will be remembered as one of the most tragic events in history. Your points and information about the politicization of vaccines and health information is truly sad. There is a huge difference between holding a debate and raising questions about public health concerns and blatantly spreading misinformation. Trustworthiness is a very fitting word here.
ReplyDeleteThe information that the media shares is crucial to forming the public's understanding of the vaccine, since most of the general public does not have the scientific insight to properly judge it for themselves. I think that sources on both sides misunderstood or misinterpreted the science behind the vaccines, as saying that the vaccines have "failed" is not true since they were never expected to provide 100% protection from the virus anyway. The high expectations certain media outlets set then made it possible for them to make claims about the vaccine not being effective (and citing data to support that), when in reality, the vaccine is working as scientists hoped. Unfortunately, these media outlets have the power to discourage the public from receiving the vaccine.
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