The manipulation of numbers and public opinion

by Davide Gionco

Every day we are subjected to the coronavirus "war bulletin" that is broadcast to us by the news or by the "mainstream" newspaper on duty. The tone is always alarmist. The news is given in such a way as to highlight the factors that can generate restlessness in the listeners, both in terms of tones and images, and in the selection of data. The image of health workers dressed up against potential infections reinforces the alarmist tone of the news.

If a data varies in an improved way, this variation is diminished with an "MA". For example: "The number of hospitalized for covid-19 decreases, but there are still 10 deaths".
If a datum varies pejoratively, this numerical variation is highlighted, without explaining the concrete relevance of that datum. For example, “The number of infected people increases”, without explaining that 95-97% are infected with no symptoms or extremely mild symptoms. This while the data of symptomatic cases is not even mentioned.

In recent days, there has been an objective increase in cases of coronavirus positivity, as well as in the number of hospital admissions.

The manipulation of numerical data is done by playing on the scale of representation.
For example, in the image above the vertical axis varies between 700 and 1000, amplifying the significance of the variation.
If the same data is represented on a different scale, the visual effect is totally different.

With a vertical scale that varies between 0 and 2000 units, the growth of the curve is much less visible, while the constancy of values ​​from 15 July to 16 August is much more evident.

Data manipulation is also done by selecting the time interval (the horizontal axis).
If the data from 15 July to today are represented together with the data of the previous months, when we were in the midst of the pandemic, the effect is totally different.

From this image it is evident that the number of hospital admissions has remained constant for at least 2 months. This does not mean that we should not be careful in preventing the spread of covid-19, but it does mean that the situation is by no means comparable to that of last spring.
The data disseminated by the Repubblica.it site, for example, highlight the number of daily infections (in red), without specifying whether they are cases with hospital relevance or not. Which makes a big difference.

It highlights the relationship between the new infections and the cases tested, without saying that it is for the vast majority of asymptomatic cases. It is as if we wanted to detect the variation of cold cases in Italy, highlighting their increase, but without remembering that it is only a cold.
This while the significant data, which is the number of hospital admissions, is much less worrying, even though it requires responsibility and attention from citizens.

The figure of deaths from coronavirus, for many days below 10 units per day, is not significant in itself, given that these are people who became infected on average a few months ago. We are not told anything about the length of stay between hospitalization and their death.
We are not told that in Italy, about 2000 people die every day, most of them from illness.
That is: having less than 10 deaths a day from coronavirus means having reached practically zero.
In fact, the daily number of deaths caused by other viruses, of different types and not subject to "media awareness" campaigns, is much higher and is not newsworthy.

The most relevant data to evaluate the danger of the covid-19 pandemic in Italy is certainly the daily trend in the number of new hospitalizations in intensive care. These are people who are seriously affected by the disease and who actually risk their lives. Another fact that is never reported to us.

Indeed, the reduction of social distances and the increase in contacts with foreign subjects led to an increase in cases in intensive care during the month of August. This is certainly more significant than the "positive cases" which include many people who actually do not have any health problems.
This data should call for caution, especially for people at risk, elderly or already with other pathologies.
The same data, however, is very relativized if we change the reference scale.

In reality, from July 15 to today, the daily number of new hospitalized in intensive care has remained constantly below 70 units, equal to 0.00012% of the Italian population.

If we then look at the months of the pandemic as a whole, the data is even more relativized.

The pandemic essentially ended in late June, after which the number of daily hospitalizations in intensive care remained essentially constant. We are now in a period in which attention is required, given that it is a disease for which preventive therapies (vaccine) or proven effective treatment have not yet been produced, but there really are no data that justify daily alarmism. of TV and newspapers.

The main reason for this media attitude is not the desire to inform citizens, but rather the willingness to exploit emotions, in order to reduce people's critical sense. It is one of the 10 "techniques" of mass manipulation described by the American philosopher Noam Chomsky .

One of the ideologues of the European Union, the Frenchman Jacques Attali, already wrote in 2009 that "a small pandemic will allow us to establish a world government".
Ruling the world does not necessarily mean controlling it militarily. It is sufficient that the strong powers, those who intend to govern it, have the tools to force the inhabitants of the world to do what they wish to do.
What better tool than the fear of an "uncontrollable" virus to reduce the rational opposition to those who intend to impoverish us economically, making prevail emotional and irrational reactions that lead us to accept what the government of the moment, to "defend us from the pandemic", proposes and imposes?

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The article The manipulation of numbers and public opinion comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-manipolazione-dei-numeri-e-dellopinione-pubblica/ on Sun, 23 Aug 2020 18:10:37 +0000.