The BBC have been accused of fueling hysteria over the coverage of the Coronavirus outbreak prompting people to take drastic, if not ridiculous, action because they fear catching it. These images, and others like them, have all been posted on Twitter in the last 24 hours. A woman with, what appears to be, a Tupperware box on her head on a London bus; a man in full respiratory gear; and a man wearing a Tesco's carrier bag over his head (though it is a bag for life).
Supermarkets are reporting the beginnings of panic-buying as shelves are being emptied of certain goods. The latest product affected, after hand-sanitiser, is toilet rolls.
Whilst there is the usual amount of wild stories and misinformation spread on social media, experts have raised concerns that the BBC's sheer volume of broadcast hours dedicated to the Coronavirus is disproportionate to the threat. The BBC appear to have a weird and growing appetite for doom. We see this with their coverage of Global Warming and the coverage of Brexit, which both received sensationalistic reporting by the BBC causing widespread panic in the population. Just as they did with these two issues, the BBC play on people's fears and anxieties over this outbreak in a bid to gain clicks and ratings.
With the Coronavirus the BBC have lost perspective, and are loving it.
Vision News 2020
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