HOW MANY PEOPLE DID NEWS MEDIA PANIC-MONGERING KILL?

The comments offer a different image than how much of the press has painted the Texas governor — “If the virus has presented a leadership test, Abbott’s metrics are getting worse,” the Texas Tribune reported last month.

And compared to the fawning national coverage of New York’s Andrew Cuomo, who was provided the opportunity for months to be interviewed by his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, without questioning over New York’s alarming rate of nursing-home COVID deaths, the differences are even more glaring. . . .

But the initial logistical shortcoming — coupled with apocalyptic headlines like NBC’s “‘All the hospitals are full’: In Houston, overwhelmed ICUs leave COVID-19 patients waiting in ER” — led to a spiraling crisis.

“All of that was overblown. We never even got close to capacity,” Delgado stated. “It’s just crazy. Crazy, crazy, out of control, overblown stuff. It’s fear, basically. It’s a fear-factor so the patients, particularly older patients, are afraid to death to do anything. There’s elderly people with chest pain staying at home and just dying, or coming in late — someone brings them in — they’ve already had a big heart attack. A lot of that is going on, and it’s really unsettling.”

“Hospitals are probably the safest place you can go to. If you’re worried about contracting coronavirus, hospitals are extremely safe — they’re safer than a grocery store, they’re safer than a restaurant,” McKeon added.

Davis told National Review that he estimates 5 to 10 percent of his patients are choosing to avoid necessary treatment. “The longer you let that go, the bigger the number will get,” he warned.

The press is never held to account for the damage it causes, yet it’s an industry that does more harm than the tobacco industry.