We are living in a world where, increasingly, less and less of what is said or written can be trusted. The term ‘fake news’ is especially banded about those who, themselves, wish to conceal or distort facts; just look at the increasing use of the BBC for government propaganda purposes and compare the way it reports on something with Channel Four news or even CNN!
We’ve had this story for a long with UK newspapers. Reading through something like the ‘Daily Express’ I have to pinch myself to realize I’m reading about the same things in the same country. Clearly this situation is being exacerbated in the current Covid-19 pandemic. Most essentially it’s statistics which lie (no new thing since as the saying -popularized by Mark Twain – goes: ‘there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics’). To limit victims of the pandemic in the UK to those who die in hospitals, for examples, and not, include those who perish from the virus outside them, in nursing homes or hostels, is shocking.
Who can we turn to to get clearer indications of what is actually happening?
Social media is certainly not the ideal place to find the truth. However, it is an excellent way of taking the temperature on certain issues which are troubling people.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our commune of Bagni di Lucca. The current junta has been slated by all sides for not sufficiently informing its citizens and residents about the current situation. In particular, it prefers not to disclose the names of persons tested positive or those who have died from the virus for reasons of privacy.
(Shooting against an unseen enemy? Bagni di Lucca’s crossbow competition in 2005)
Here is a particularly telling opinion raised by a well-considered lady, resident in the commune:
“Il Paesello’ (The little town)
… We have been left alone, a communication every now and then … never exhaustive, often not precise, sometimes quite wrong … We … the citizens who ask for information … as in the best dictatorships we are silenced. .. Today the weapon used is the insult: we are accused of ignorance, wickedness, perverse curiosity, disrespect towards the sick person… we are called plague spreaders.
The request for information was for the place where the victim is and not for the name of the unfortunate person who is fighting against the new evil and to whom we are close and for whom we pray every day.
It is the lack of information that generates fear and chaos – not vice versa.
The war that is unfolding in the media is your fault; it’s your fault if today a person infected by this cursed virus feels guilty instead and not a victim!
Apparently we have no right to basic information, we have no right to speak ..
We have to accept in silence the three words of an informal statement made every now and then only if a city council or other meeting is not scheduled that day …
We really have to envy those neighbouring town which are guided, well-informed and morally supported and where everything is done without breaking the law and without disrespecting anyone …. On the contrary …
Watching others team up … a united and strong team that is able to win …
Moral duty … appeals to those who can make an economic contribution to the emergency that will be managed by … by the absentees on duty … after they have contributed to the economic decline of the town …(half the shops had already closed down before the crisis)
Trust is earned through work …. building not destroying … opening not closing …
Even without a captain we have a strong team…
Let us thank all our voluntary associations. First of all the Red Cross, doctors, law enforcement officers, village shops, supermarkets, restaurants, pharmacies … all increasingly at our service with home deliveries
… do they also have no right to information?
Together we will make it ..
Bagni di Lucca is not going to sink like the Costa Concordia”.
Now let’s have your opinion…
Swallows congregate
freely in the summer’s flight;
could we do likewise. ..
Another disagreement, Francis! I have long been of the opinion that every journalist, every commentator, every purveyor of education, should be trained in, and have an understanding of, statistics. Every morning they should be made to chant ‘Define your terms’ and ‘Never generalise from the specific’. In your example of ‘hospital deaths,’ the statistician is simply taken a defined and reliably available fact, extrapolating a statistical trend from that and using that trend to demonstrate the track of the disease. If you consider how you might reliably count, daily, the deaths in Nursing Homes and in the community, I think you will concede the difficulty of obtaining reliable facts, and statistics need reliable facts to discern trends.
And another point, if the mayor were to tell you that your neighbour in Lugliano had the virus you would be frightened and very very strict about your hygiene, however, those of us miles away in Bagni Caldi might relax, and thus increase the likelihood of catching and passing on the disease. Better not to say, and have everyone take proper care.
All the best and look after yourself and yours
Thanks for your good wishes and interesting comment.