I dont think COVID is harmless if that is what you mean. I think it has killed people. 150k? Probably not.
however the agenda is purely political. Otherwise all of the other controllable killers out there would get the same attention. Smoking and lung cancer? Drunk driving?
there is no doubt that MSM is trying to leverage COVID to impact the election.
Allow me to address each of your statements above...
1. You said "
I dont think COVID is harmless if that is what you mean. I think it has killed people. 150k? Probably not."
You are right. It probably hasnt killed 150k people. It has killed more. Just as the number of people who have been infected is many times more than is reported, the number of deaths is greater as well. Its not by the same factor, but both numbers are understated.
Look at the chart below...
Pneumonia like symptoms are some of the leading symptoms that lead to death in COVID-19 patients. The chart above shows how many deaths in the U.S. this year have been attributed to patients who were diagnosed with pneumonia. Each year about 50k people die of pneumonia. To date that would be a little less than 30k. However, in the U.S. this year pneumonia deaths already exceed 147K. That means 117k more pneumonia deaths than normal. Only 60k of those excess pneumonia deaths have been attributed to COVID-19 as a result of a test. What accounts for the other almost 60k in excess pneumonia deaths? You don't think the majority of those are likely undiagnosed COVID-19 patients? This doesn't even cover other diagnosis which are up such as strokes and pulmonary embolisms from clotting which is a classic COViD-19 symptom.
2. You said, "
however the agenda is purely political. Otherwise all of the other controllable killers out there would get the same attention. Smoking and lung cancer? Drunk driving? "
How many ads and promotions have you seen in your life to discourage smoking because it causes cancer? The ad dollars are in the billions. All along the way, there have been smokers and big tobacco companies who pushed back and said it was false and there was no proof. But the science eventually won out and those ads paid off and have saved thousands.
But it goes beyond the ads. We had numerous municipalities across America pass smoking ordinances to prevent smoking at indoor public places where others would be exposed to second hand smoke. Again, with great pushback from smoking advocates who said it was infringing on the smoker's rights. They seem silly and ignorant now, don't they?
Let's compare the impacts of second hand smoke to COVID-19. Per the CDC second hand smoke kills 41,000 people a year. COVID-19 has killed 160k people in the U.S. in just 5 months. Annualized that is 384,000 deaths. Yet people are claiming that actions taken to require masks indoors to protect others from asymptomatic carriers is unwarranted and a violation of people's civil liberties. How crazy is that?
As for drunk driving, it kills around 10,000 people a year. Again, compared to the 384,000 annualized deaths due to COVID-19 it seems like a drop in the bucket. But how many ad dollars and movements have their been to discourage drunk driving and how many organizations are devoted to stopping it?
So, to your point, the numbers for COVID more than support the response from the media and municiplaties and other organizations to take actions to try and limit it. It is many times more dangerous than your two examples.
3. You said, "
there is no doubt that MSM is trying to leverage COVID to impact the election."
So, when 384k people suddenly die per year, due to an unexpected event, not to mention many times more chronic illnesses, it isn't a story that should be covered in the media if there is an election? What are the past events in our nation's history that led to the loss of almost 400k lives a year? How were they covered? Well, we don’t have any recent examples, so let’s look at the best we have to offer...
We lost 400k Americans during World War II spread over 4 years. That is 100k per year.
We lost 58K Americans during the Vietnam War spread over 14 years.
We lost 3k citizens on 9/11 and another 7k troops in Iraq and Afghanistan following that event.
My point is, given the loss of life of those major events above and the loss of life due to COVID-19, how can you say the coverage is disproportionate? That is insanity. We had elections over the course of those events highlighted above as well. Was media coverage of those events manufactured to influence elections? The sudden threat of loss of life to Americans is significantly higher from COVID-19 than all of those events combined.
Again, your points above are things I hear too many repeat. We have a crisis in this country that exceeds anything we have seen in 100 years. How is that not significant? How does that not require and enormous response from government, the media, and the public?