Once again, for news organizations that want to sell commercials and increase viewership, it seems negative news takes the cake. For the past several weeks, the media has driven panic into the minds of millions of Americans with fear surrounding a coronavirus ‘second wave.’

For example, The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on June 26 titled, “Coronavirus surge brings fear of new shutdown, calls to mask up.” MSNBC recently had on Dr. Howard Koh, a former Obama administration official, who said, “We’re very concerned about the hospitals being overwhelmed in Arizona and Texas and elsewhere.” And The Texas Tribune ran a story on July 1 tilted, “Internal messages reveal crisis at Houston hospitals as coronavirus cases surge.”

If you just listen to the mainstream media, you would think Texas is about to be the coronavirus second wave’s New York City.

Indeed, this narrative has sparked fear into the hearts of many, so much so that grocery stores in Texas are preparing for another round of panic buying.

Even though there has been a clear rise in cases since June 8, that isn’t the only news that you should know.

Deaths Continue to Decline

Despite now being more than two weeks after cases began to increase, deaths have continued to trend downward, with no such spike in mortality.

There were 17,180 new cases reported on June 9. Since then, there has been a marked increase to an all-time high of a whopping 52,609 new cases reported on July 1. However, the number of COVID-19 deaths continues to fall.

On June 9, 926 deaths from COVID-19 were reported. On July 1, despite a continuing increase in cases, just 670 deaths were reported.

This is due in part to younger people now being infected with the coronavirus as well as better and more knowledgeable medical treatment than was given at the start of the pandemic.

Texas Hospitals Are Not Being Overwhelmed

Despite what the media has reported, Texas hospitals are not being overwhelmed.

In a recent interview on CNBC, Dr. David Callender, CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, said that Houston hospitals continue to be able to meet the need for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.

“We actually still think we have plenty of capacity to meet the demand for COVID as well as non-COVID patients… What we’re seeing now is a typical summer for us,” Dr. Callender said.

Likewise, Houston Methodist CEO Dr. Marc Boom also deflated the theory that Texas hospitals are being overrun.

“We’re somewhere in the low 90s in terms of capacity of ICU beds. But let me put that in perspective. What was our ICU capacity one year ago today? It was at 95%,” Dr. Boom said. “We are highly experienced at utilizing our ICU beds for the sickest of the sick patients… and it is completely normal for us to have ICU capacities that run in the 80s and 90s. That’s how all hospitals operate.”

Increases in Hospitalization Rates Are Due to Quarantine Delayed Procedures

For the two or more months that Americans remained in quarantine, thousands of citizens who should have gone to hospitals for emergency or routine surgeries and procedures didn’t go either because their elective surgeries were canceled, or because of fear over the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, those patients who have had their surgeries canceled or postponed over the past several months, are finally going to the hospital for their needed procedures.

Dr. Marc Siegel appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight on July 1 to reveal this as the reason hospitalization rates may be increasing.

“It’s being widely reported that the hospitalization rate is going up, but it’s not reported that it’s not mostly COVID-19. It’s actually the cases that were there because of the reopening,” Dr. Siegel said. “They’re now getting the elective surgeries they need, cancer operations, heart disease operations, hernia operations. They’re filling the hospitals.”

The media-driven panic is nothing new. The Daily Citizen also reported last week about the media’s malpractice in covering only the negative news regarding the recent spike in coronavirus cases.

Dr. Siegel concluded his interview with Tucker Carlson by hypothesizing why the media has continued its hysterical coverage despite all the good news. He said, “Let me ask a question. Why is the whole story not being reported? The answer is one word: politics.”

 

You can follow this author on Twitter @MettlerZachary

Photo from Shutterstock

 

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