The news and why it doesn't matter, pt. 2

So I had a comment on my blog from yesterday that got me thinking. I'm not gonna name names just because but here's the comment. 

I really wish we had leaders that could be honest about the risks and maybe more people would understand. There is a middle ground but damn I don't think anyone is smart enough to understand and actually evaluate risk.

Now I'm not going to say this is wrong but I think alot gets lost in the transition from what our leaders say to what the news headlines are. The latest example is Dr. Fauci's testimony before the Senate. He said this in response to a question from Sen. Alexander in regards to having a vaccine before school starts in the fall.

"The idea of having treatments available, or a vaccination, to facilitate the reentry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far," Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday.

"We're really not talking about treating a student who gets ill, but how the student will feel safe in going back to school," he said. "If this was a situation where we had a vaccine, that would be the end of that issue, in a positive way. But even at the top speed we're going, we don't see a vaccine playing in the ability of individuals to get back to school this term."

After his testimony, CNN ran an end of the world we can't reopen or we are all going to die piece. (I've been working on my hyperbole). President Trump fired back via Fox News that Dr. Fauci doesn't make the final decision regarding school closings. Somehow, lost in all this, was that all he said was we won't have a vaccine and need to focus on keeping the kids safe. That is a very reasonable statement taken out of context by everyone. We just need to calm down people. Take a breath, realize the media lies, and read what's actually being said, not what's being reported. Is the rona real? Yes. Are people dieing? Yes. Do we need people to go back to work? Yes. Do we need to save the economy to stop the cure from being worse than the disease? Yes. These are all true statements that need to be balanced and all the idiots with microphones need to sit down, shut up, and let the smart people get shit done instead of spending half their time worrying about how their words will be spun. Don't watch the news, listen to the local guidelines, wash your hands, and listen to the CDC (not what the media reports the CDC said) because we need to come out of this as quickly as is safely possible.