The Press Should NEVER Shut Up, Dr. Drew

Dr. Drew Pinsky just wants things to settle down. So do the rest of us, I'll bet.

He wants the press to "shut up" about what he believes to be insufficiently large numbers of people who have caught, and died from, the coronavirus. In terms of the totality of humanity, well, the numbers are small: 17,000 caught, 362 (as of yesterday) perished.

No biggie, right? Just calm down, right?

More information is always better than less. You can get upset by it if you want to. You can also ignore it if you want to. It's up to you. And it should be. That means you actually have access to it to make an informed decision about, say, traveling darn near anywhere now because anyone who's been to Wuhan, China, might just be carrying the virus with them and not know it.

You see, some of the other information that's been put out there by that cantankerous press that Dr. Drew's whining about is that you can carry the virus for up to two weeks and not have any symptoms whatsoever. That means that you've become a very nice incubation machine for spreading one hell of a disease around the entire globe.

Globalization does that, too. It means that pretty soon, anything you could be touching outside of your own dwelling might be infected.

That's just what people don't want: fear. They can get pretty paranoid.

But doesn't it depend on what they get paranoid about? And whether it should matter? Moreover, shouldn't we all have as much information as we can possibly get?

Where was everyone worrying about overexposure to information when the Ebola virus hit Texas five years ago? Seems to me the press got all over that, too.

The problem is not that it's over-reported. The problem is that it's an awful virus that's got an excellent chance of getting out of control. But Dr. Drew wants us not to worry until, say, that three-figured number of deaths hits--what, four figures? Five? Six?

When do we get your permission to get really worried, Dr. Drew? You're a member of the media, too--right? Didn't you tell the 'media' to shut up on a television show? That makes you a competing member of the media, trying to out-shout the voices which suggest that we start getting pretty worried about this.

All you have to do, Dr. Drew, is keep talking on your show. Your show. You know, the one you're quite privileged to have?

I don't want the press to ever, ev-er, stop telling us about this stuff. It's the same way I don't want the press to ever, ev-er, stop reporting the number of those military folks with brain injuries from the Iranian counterattack the other day.

The number of people injured, said 45, who can never be trusted about anything, was zero at first.

He lied. He always lies. We learned that, again, as if it needs to be learned by anybody anymore, when the total suddenly went to 33.

Then it went to 50. Then 64. And now, as of today, it's 109.

109 brain injuries. Shall we call that, too, a minor issue, Dr. Drew? I mean, nobody's died yet.

Have they? Or is that under-reported? I want to know more about those people: Where they are, how are they, and for heaven's sake, who they are. No names have been published. I can take one guess why--because they're not done counting the injured yet. 109 will grow. If it doesn't, I'll stand corrected.

You don't need my permission to get really worried about that, gang. You already should be. Nobody's on that story that I know of: Not CNN, not the New York Times, nobody. That secret's too well-kept, and that hurts all of us.

Because if we don't know and won't know numbers about who's hurt in this particular incident, we won't know how many people are sick from the coronavirus until it's way-way too late, until things are pretty much spread all over the country.

That's why you put the numbers out there right now, Dr. Drew. You create awareness. With awareness comes prevention. With prevention comes the arrest of the spread of what might be a disease that might kill thousands.

And with awareness of real numbers will come questions as to what our government's doing to get out in front of it, if it's still possible to do so. Which is why this can, and with this bunch of hoodlums will, be hidden until they're ready to release it: to create talking points and minimize criticism. They think they're good at it and they are, until actual facts are revealed. They'll lie about this, too, if they haven't already. Wait and see.

Look, Dr. Drew, you're a physician. You know more about this stuff than we do. And your voice is valued. Too. I can take your advice and trash the press, and assume that's a little too soon to get too excited, or I can conclude that you're the one who's a little slow on the take here, and that your elevated position might be better utilized at telling us what to do so we don't have to worry about it.

Running and hiding and wishing it would all go away just doesn't cut it. There's way too much of that going on right here and right now, which is an important reason we're in the fix we're in--and I don't mean about a disease, either.

Be well (Yeah, I know I always say that, but I mean it). Be careful (Ditto). I'll see you down the road (Hopefully).


Mister Mark