TV journalists on CNN keep urging their audience to “not get this disease” as if there’s a single person out there hoping to get infected with COVID-19 for some yet unexplained reason.
That’s not happening. But, of course, there’s a high-stakes election in one week’s time, and of course, CNN needs to keep the panic dial up to 1,000.
CNN anchor Poppy Harlow on Tuesday hosted a segment with a 13-year-old girl who had tested positive for the new coronavirus and apparently suffered an extended bout of malaise because of it.
Like most children up to the age of 19 — that’s 99.9% of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control — the young girl was all but certain to recover, but unlike most, she needed hospital treatment.
Yes, that’s what the 0.1% estimate is for. There will always be outliers, lest anyone at CNN forget.
But Harlow did forget. At the end of the segment, she said to the guest, “What do you want to say to anyone who says, look, children don’t get COVID, or, you know, even the president said ‘children are almost immune’? You prove otherwise.”
Yes, Harlow actually acknowledged that President Trump has said children are “almost” fully resistant to the virus, but then looked at one child, who she deemed to “prove otherwise.”
It’s astounding.
Any premature death is, of course, a tragedy. But premature COVID-19 deaths remain exceedingly rare for every age group, especially under the age of 50.
True, the little girl on CNN said she suffered a lengthy bout of fatigue. May that be the worst that happens to her as she heads into high school.
CNN has been doing this for a long time, though.
Late last month, CNN TV doctor Sanjay Gupta said that, “While older people are much more likely to die if they’re infected, younger people are by no means immune.” They’re not immune, but the odds of succumbing to the virus are infinitesimal.
Still, Gupta went on to say, “There have been over 840 COVID-19 related deaths in young people under the age of 30. At least 850 children, 17 and younger, have been hospitalized.”
At the time, that meant 0.01% of the 7 million total infections resulted in a death under the age of 30.
Yeah, nobody wants the virus. Nobody wants to gamble with their life. But if taking those odds means leaving the house, seeing family and friends, going to school and going to work, more than a few people might be okay with the risk.
Just a couple of days before that segment, Gupta was again on air to say, “I always tell people, young or old, you don’t want this disease. Because sometimes there is this perception, ‘I’ll just get it, I’ll get through it, and I’ll be good to go. Especially if I’m a young person.’ You don’t want this disease.”
The perception exists because it’s real. A 99.9% survival rate does mean these people will be “good to go.”
Again, nobody wants to catch a virus, no matter how benign it might be.
CNN’s panic show, however, isn’t over yet.
