COVID Infects the Media

MEDIA 1:

Dr. Phil is a television medical professional who is known mostly for his T.V show about dramatic interventions with people suffering from behavioral/social issues. He warns about a different kind of emergency during this pandemic, mainly mental health issues. His tone is serious and concerned, and he uses several statistics to drive his point that the precautions we’re taking to prevent COVID are exacerbating other conditions in America, such as causing 22 million to become unemployed (Washington Post, 2020). He believes this leads to stress and the inability to feed oneself or obtain medical assistance. He claims the isolation leads to increased cardiovascular issues, and that more people will die from these problems than would die from COVID. He points out that we never closed our economy for other high death-toll causing issues such as:

  • 250 deaths/year from poverty (Mailman School of Public Health, 2011)
  • 360,000 deaths/year from swimming pool drownings (3,536 deaths/year according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016)
  • 45,000 deaths/year from car accidents (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)
  • 480,000 deaths/year from cigarettes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

He believes we should not be sheltering in place or social distancing. Since the quarantine is in place though, he notes the importance of maintaining a daily routine and not just lying around the house, so as to avoid falling into depression or other health issues.

After fact checking several of his statements, it proved that the statistics he used are overall valid, though it’s hard to say whether his predictions and speculation is correct. One might even say his comparisons are inappropriate, as car accidents and drownings are not infectious/transmittable (although they do cause thousands of deaths every year).

According to Fink (2020) with the New York Times, if Americans don’t quarantine/isolate, the death toll could reach up to 1.7 million citizens. The information Dr. Phil gave about isolation/loneliness causing or increasing heart disease is true, but, according to Xia & Li (2018), that’s more of an effect over prolonged periods of time, and what’s more, isolation isn’t the only cause of loneliness (e.g people in marriages and with kids can still suffer from it), so in effect, his point appears moot.

References

Washington Post. (2020). U.S. now has 22 million unemployed, wiping out a decade of job gains. Retrieved May 2, 2020, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/16/unemployment-claims-coronavirus/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2016). Unintentional Drowning: Get the Facts. Retrieved 04/19/2020 from https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/water-safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2019). Motor Vehicle Injury. Retrieved 04/19/2020 from https://www.cdc.gov/publichealthgateway/didyouknow/topic/vehicle.html

Mailman School of Public Health. (2011). How Many U.S Deaths are Caused by Poverty, Lack of Education, and Other Social Factors? Retrieved 04/19/2020 from https://www.mailman.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/how-many-us-deaths-are-caused-poverty-lack-education-and-other-social-factors

Xia, N. & Li, H. (2018). Loneliness, social isolation, and cardiovascular health. Antioxidants & Redox Signaling, 28(9), 837-851.

Fink, S. (2020). Worst-case estimates for U.S coronavirus deaths. New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.html

MEDIA 2:

Dr. Oz is a television medical professional who has questionable credibility due to making multiple claims on his T.V show that have been scrutinized by the Journal of Ethics (2017) for endorsing medical remedies and providing advice that lacks evidence-based research, and in some cases, were just blatantly wrong. In this particular YouTube clip, he promotes social distancing/isolation in order to slow down transmission to give hospitals a chance to better prepare to take care of people (i.e free up staffing, ventilators, vaccination development, etc). His tone is playful in his attempt to be educational. He doesn’t go into too much detail, but shares broad strokes of information that are easy to digest for non-medical personnel. He mimes hand washing to show the general public how to have better hand hygiene, though makes some questionable comments, such as hand washing HALVES the chance of catching COVID.

I was unable to confirm this specific statistic, only that hand-washing is indeed largely promoted to lower the risk of transmission.

Dr. Oz emphasizes the need to stay strong during these times by exercising, sleeping well, and eating good foods (a general consensus for health overall). He lists some symptoms to recognize if you might have COVID, and then recommends staying home if it’s mild, and calling rather than physically going to the doctor (all of which has been actively promoted by the CDC as well). He claims no one under the age of 10 has gotten infected, though I was unable to find any scientific source that confirmed or denied this. He states that young people typically handle it fine and that commonly it’s those who are 60+ years old with underlying health conditions that are most at risk (also an idea promoted by the CDC, 2020).

Overall his message is easy to understand and supported by credible sources. It’s free of medical jargon and designed to draw in the attention of the general public. His personal credibility and the few unconfirmable statements he made were a little concerning though, and could be misleading to someone who whole-heartedly trusts his advice as a medical professional.

References

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020). Coronavirus (COVID-19). Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

Tillburt, J., Allyse, M., Hafferty, F. (2017). The case of Dr. Oz: ethics, evidence, and does professional self-regulation work? Journal of Ethics, 19(2), 199-206.

MEDIA 3:

Dr. Roger Seheult is a critical care specialist and pulmonologist, who discusses a trial treatment for COVID-19 called Remdesivir. This video is less for the general public and more for medical professionals. His tone is formal, and it has a lot of medical jargon, statistics, charts – all of which is used to break down studies concerning this drug. One study completed in China turned out to have too few case studies to prove helpful, thus cannot be used to confirm or deny the drugs potential. Regardless of the lack of data, he points out a news article from the U.S that claims the medication DOES effect the disease positively. In order to suss out where they got this belief, he takes a look at the American study of the drug and walks the audience through the research process.

By: Eelke

It appears that the American study derived their positive  results using incomplete data. It suggests that there may have been a statistically significant result had it been completed, but since the effectiveness wasn’t tested, the American article is claiming false-positives.

While Dr. Roger is very good at explaining step by step how the results were derived and giving examples to understand, it would be difficult for someone who is easily confused by numbers to understand the significance of the information in this video, and would probably deter many of the general population from watching it to completion. However, anyone who does understand statistics would find this rather credible, since he shows all the math that would be used based on the test results gathered to come to the conclusions that were published.

As for other options, Harvard Health Publishing (2020) notes that the cure for COVID-19 is still undiscovered, but scientists are working hard to find it. While some believed hydroxychloroqine could possibly be the answer, the evidence was weak.

Currently, the best treatment offered is rest, hydration, acetaminophen for fever/aches, and to avoid spreading it by reducing contact with others. Regardless of the lack of evidence of a remedy though, an article published by U.S Today (2020) states that U.S hospitals are preparing to administering Remdesivir to roughly 200,000 patients.

If Dr. Roger and Harvard Health are to be believed, then it is concerning that American media continue to promote the possible distribution of a “cure”.

References

Harvard Health Publishing. “Treatments for COVID-19.” Harvard Health, 24 Apr. 2020, www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/treatments-for-covid-19.

Snider, Mike. “Coronavirus Treatment Drug Remdesivir to Arrive in Hospitals This Week, Gilead CEO Says.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 3 May 2020, www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2020/05/03/coronavirus-treatment-drug-remdesivir-coming-hospitals-week/3074612001/.