Dr. Drew Pinsky: Mainstream media fanning the flames of coronavirus panic
Drew Pinsky told 'Fox & Friends' the panic about coronavirus is far worse than the actual virus and the media is to blame.
The media is fanning the flames of panic surrounding the coronavirus outbreak, Dr. Drew Pinsky said Friday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with hosts Jedediah Bila, Pete Hegseth and Steve Doocy, Pinksy said that the panic surrounding the deadly virus is "far worse than the virus."
"Let the professionals whose job it is to contain pandemic do their job," he exclaimed. "They're doing an amazing job. Worldwide, the efforts and [effectiveness] of the organizations like the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention} CDC and the World Health Organization [WHO] has been remarkable, and yet the media continue to take every effort to fan the flames of panic.
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"Look, the WHO has said there's about a three percent fatality rate on this virus and every time they say that they always qualify it and say we expect it to drop a lot once we understand the full extent of the virus. ... It's among us. This is a flu season, everybody, There are 18,000 deaths from the flu," he continued.
"Why aren't we worried about that?" he asked. "Why isn't the message: get your flu shot? You're much more likely to die of the flu than the coronavirus."
Pinsky told the "Friends" hosts he believes the media has gone to "great lengths" to keep fear alive in the hearts of their viewers.
"A local news agency in Los Angeles had...footage of a paramedic being dispatched to a cruise ship repeatedly all evening...and at the end, they go, 'Oh, by the way, there was a fight on a cruise ship. Somebody got injured,'" he recalled.
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"And, you then, again, you saw the CDC press conference a couple of days ago where reporters were like, 'What are poor people supposed to do [with] the price of Purell?'" Pinsky added. "And, somebody stands up and goes, 'Wash your hands. It's far better.'
"So, wash your hands, disinfect everything, use your Clorox wipes, get your flu shot. Do all the things you're supposed to do in flu season," he advised.
On Friday, President Trump signed an $8.3 billion coronavirus spending bill to help combat the spread of the disease. To date, there have been at least 97,993 confirmed cases worldwide with over 3,300 deaths. The United States lays claim to 232 cases of the virus and 11 deaths have been recorded thus far.
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