Political Correctness and Coronavirus

(opinion article)

May 5, 2020, Kyiv. Nowadays, in Ukraine 12,367 people are infected with the coronavirus, 316 patients died, the death rate is 2.56%. The number of those who got infected during this day decreased – 366. For comparison May 2 -550, May 3 -502, May 4 – 418 infected.

Surely, in spite of some positive tendencies, it is too early to speak about the total lifting of the quarantine. Though some mitigation measures could be taken, especially if we start speaking about the situation with small and middle businesses in Ukraine. At least, these gradual steps could be discussed in our mass media. We should not invent a bicycle, it is sufficient to look at the actions of France, Germany, and Poland aimed at the revival of their quarantine and post-quarantine economics.

However, one more problem connected with the coronavirus pandemic becomes obvious. The problem of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS! Almost all those who create content for the present-day Ukrainian and world multimedia outlets attended Institutes and Universities. Almost everybody belonging to journalistic circles knows what means the term “subliminal message.” I guess there is no necessity to explain it. I think you remember the classic example from Paris subway when the inscription ‘No exit’ from the glass doors was changed on ‘Exit nearby’ and the level of suicide decreased 6-7% in the whole city. However, a number of journalists, while covering daily news on several TV channels, accompany their broadcasting reports with creeping lines (tickers) containing two keywords – “coronavirus” and “death toll”, “death toll and coronavirus”,  “coronavirus” and “death toll.” A week ago, in Ternopil Oblast, a sixty old man committed suicide after hospitalizing with the coronavirus infection. Who knows, maybe, it happened after his watching of a TV report with a journalist panic-monger adding captions with ‘death tolls’.

In my opinion, it is a wrong practice that should be controlled by public organizations. Positive thinking has a healing effect. Thousands of books have been written about it. Thousands of psychological couches made their careers giving numerous examples of recovery and success thanks to the effective application of optimistic models of behavior.

The style of news presentation with the dominance of such keywords as ‘death’ and ‘death toll’ flickering every two or three seconds on the screens of some TV channels looks not professional, not politically correct, and harmful for the spiritual, mental and physical health of their viewers.

So, I think that the coronavirus news presentation is not a political-correctness-free zone.

Let`s be conscious and cautious, optimistic and happy. Let`s improve our immune systems! Let`s think positive and drink clean water! Together we shall overcome!