In general context that is underreported or not constant fear mongering.
what "
fear mongering" are you seeing? Is insisting on mask-wearing in public
fear mongering? is calling for social distancing
fear mongering? is reporting that 280,000 people have died
fear mongering?
and exactly what level of reporting about deaths in nursing home would you consider the right level instead of an "underreported" level? I don't think that make any sense at all
there are reports every day about deaths in care facilities. Every damn day. Since the crisis began there have been constant reports and printed data about older people being vulnerable and having higher mortality rate. For chrissakes, I just googled "
older people more vulnerable to covid" and got 315 million results. After that, searching "
covid deaths in care facilities" returned 104 million results.
the NY Times has an article on this:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html
and the estimate is about 40% of deaths are linked to care facilities. Now, some of those deaths are not residents but rather workers; but that probably doesn't impact the numbers much. That still leaves 170,000 deaths out there among people NOT in nursing homes. Would reporting that 170,000 number in a non-nursing-home context be less fear-mongering?
and we don't know if that 40% ratio will remain constant. In many states, like Washington and Oregon, the initial surges of deaths came in care facilities. That's likely common across the nation. When we were at 50,000 deaths, were 60% of the deaths in care facilities? That seems like meaningful context to know, at least it does to me in order to place the 40% estimate in the proper context
and now, the estimates are that by February, we may very well have 400,000 deaths. And by then, a quarter million of those deaths will likely be among people not in nursing homes. I'm having a hard time seeing how these numbers, and reporting them, can be twisted into fear mongering
