For weeks now the Democrats, complicit media, and activist resistors of all shapes and sizes have been encouraging the public to obsess along with them over the corona flu.
Media coverage has been nonstop, despite the fact that the percentage of Americans who have recently contracted the coronavirus remains a miniscule portion of the population.
As the left-tilted media are prone to do, reporting on the health-related issue has been anything but measured. Instead it has been hyperbolic in tone and frantic in nature, seemingly intended to eliminate reason and heighten fear in individuals and the public at large.
Media stories that have been put out have spread as swiftly as pre-school sniffles, with the negative impact bulldozing its way from Wall Street to Walmart. There have been market reactions, conference re-schedulings, school closings, sporting cancellations, movie postponements, and the like, all having an unsettling ripple effect of disruption, disquiet, and dismay.
Media images often embedded in recent coronavirus stories show people wearing face masks while engaging in otherwise normal activity. This, among other things, has contributed to a sort of panic buying of a variety of sanitizing agents as well as surgical and N95 respirator masks.
Leave it to celebrities in Hollywood to seize the self-centered moment. Many stars have joined in to assist in fanning the flames of fear and leading folks astray. Social media is their current marketing tool of choice.
The latest celebrity fad is to use social media to share a face mask selfie. Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson, Kim Kardashian West, Steve Harvey, O.J. Simpson, Bella Hadid, Selena Gomez, and Brody Jenner have all posed for pictures in which they have partially hidden their features with face masks. Frequently accompanying their photos is a caption about the virus.
The social media posts are, at a minimum, a disservice to the public, according to experts. Masks will not protect an individual from contracting the virus.
Eli Perencevich, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Iowa and an infection specialist, explained the following via Twitter: "Masks won't protect the average person. Because they will wear them incorrectly and autocontaminate themselves."
Professor Perencevich told Forbes that the average healthy person has no need to don a mask. "There's no evidence that wearing masks on healthy people will protect them," he said.
Experts also point out that when the public contributes to a run on masks, as has recently been seen, it serves to create a shortage for those who actually need them and are expert in employing them — the medical professionals.
The misinformation that is making its way across the internet prompted the U.S. surgeon general to issue a statement urging people to "STOP BUYING MASKS!"; this is because of the lack of effectiveness of the masks with regard to the general public and the necessity to ensure their availability for health care providers.
The masked selfies by celebrities seem to have added to the anxiety of individuals over their coronavirus-related readiness, or lack thereof.
Harvey and his wife were shown sporting bedazzled masks.
Simpson posted a picture of himself wearing a white mask while stockpiling at Costco.
Paltrow posted a selfie on Instagram modeling a black mask on a flight to France. Her caption cited the 2011 movie in which she starred, "Contagion."
"I've already been in this movie," Paltrow wrote.
There was, of course, the spewing of obligatory Hollywood hate for President Donald Trump and growing animosity for Vice President Mike Pence. The online poison concerning the coronavirus added further fuel to the five-alarm fire.
Chelsea Handler, Rosie O'Donnell, Jeffrey Wright, Cher, Bradley Whitford, Bette Midler, Jason Alexander, Ron Perlman, Michael Ian Black, Barbra Streisand, John Leguizamo, Rob Reiner, Minnie Driver, Alyssa Milano and Debra Messing repeated numerous false claims about the president and vice president and response to the public health problem.
Best to ignore Hollywood's hype and hate. Instead we can remember to wash our hands often and fold them in prayer for the restoration of health and return to sanity.
James Hirsen, J.D., M.A., in media psychology, is a New York Times best-selling author, media analyst, and law professor. Visit Newsmax TV Hollywood.Read more reports from James Hirsen — Click Here Now.
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