Let's Eat Some Disinfectants! How Media Impacts Pandemic Precautions 

With the pandemic still very prevalent and talked about, I have the misfortune of hearing about it literally 24/7. What's worse, is I have to hear our president of the United States suggest ingesting disinfectants as a way to combat the pandemic…. How is this not more concerning to people? Our president, the man supposed to be leading this country out of these troubling times, told us to eat some hand sanitizer essentially. Lysol and other companies had to come out with public statements clearing up the misconceptions, saying we should in fact not ingest disinfectants, despite Trump's very, very scholarly suggestion. There's even been spikes within the Poison Control Center's cases since this statement! Trump also pushed to have the economy and businesses open back up. And while I understand the economic severity this pandemic has put our infrastructure through, the well-being of the people should be prioritized over the profitability of our existing operations. The United States number of Covid-19 cases is the highest in the world, which puts our nation at more risk for a higher fatality rate. Hospitals are overwhelmed and people are still getting sick, the cases are not plateauing. How would returning to normal alleviate this at all? The answer is that it won't. What this implies to me is that our government is mighty okay with sacrificing its citizens in order to maintain the economy. Basically, people are going to get sick, and if you die… Well sucks for you, you still got to show up for your shift tomorrow anyway. 

Since Trump is the face of media during these times, media's impact results in the normalization of practicing these dangerous courses of actions that will only increase our numbers of cases and fatalities. People are glued to their TVs and news coverage. Having Trump dominate this presence is only leading citizens astray, thinking it's okay to not quarantine or take any precautions like basic sanitation / cleanliness. Now we have protests all over the country, people carrying guns and relating this quarantine / not working to slavery… dose the majority of the country historically know about what slavery was? This is a genuine inquiry, because I've been seeing many make assertions that this or that equates to slavery, when really I think it's ~white, upper-class privilege~ that somehow redefines the historical context and actuality of what slavery is (Just my side rant for this post). All said and done, this is yet another example of how media is too powerful for our own good. As a society, we are not culturally ready to use media effectively. Our country is a wreck right now and instead of using the media to calm people down, being transparent and honest with the public, we say it's fine enough to open your businesses and to eat some Purell. Wow, just wow.         

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/26/us/politics/trump-disinfectant-coronavirus.html