How well informed are Americans about Coronavirus in other countries?
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
March 23, 2020 6:39am CST
It was once famously said that every visitor to the United States could perform a simple magic trick by opening a newspaper and watching his/her own country disappear!
I did actually try this for myself during my only visit to the US, back in 2006, and I can confirm the truth of this statement! It certainly appears to be true that Americans in general are not all that interested in anything that happens beyond their borders if it does not have an impact on them.
This prompts me to wonder just how much the average American knows about the spread of Coronavirus around the World and how other countries are dealing with it. Do they know, for example, which countries are particular hotspots?
I may be completely wrong about this, but I do sometimes get the funny feeling that there are people over there who have the notion that the virus was invented in China for the sole purpose of exporting it to the United States and nowhere else!
7 people like this
7 responses
@ScribbledAdNauseum (104615)
• United States
23 Mar 20
National News does sometimes cover a bit of information in regards to the virus in other countries.I've not watched the news in probably a week, they seem to be saying the same thing over and over again.
2 people like this
@porwest (112929)
• United States
23 Mar 20
We have actually been very aware on this side of the water of the hotspots, namely China and Italy. But I have other reasons for why the media is telling us about that so adamantly. As for Americans being informed about what is happening the world over, most of the time it is the conservatives who are the most informed. Liberals tend to be in the dark about even stuff happening in our own country.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
23 Mar 20
@porwest I find that to be a fascinating answer, for the reason that even with a national emergency like this, Americans can find reasons for making political jibes at the "side" they distrust more!
That is just not happening elsewhere. In Europe we are trying to pull together and politicians are seeking to co-operate rather than continue their political backbiting.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112929)
• United States
23 Mar 20
@indexer It's not a political jibe. But I get your gist. It's just the truth. Our media here is SOOO leftist that liberals often only get half the story, or they get a slanted story, and for whatever reason simply do not choose to look further. They take in what they want to hear, spoon fed, and have no idea what is really happening in the world.
It's sort of like the recent headline that republican senators denied benefits to millions of workers in a recent bill. Liberals said shame on you. Conservatives actually read the bill, read what the democrats put IN the bill that made it unpassable, and fully understand that the reason the bill was not passed was because of what the democrats snuck into the bill to make it unpassable.
But the media won't tell you that and liberals won't go looking for it.
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
23 Mar 20
Like you, Fiacre, I rely on the security provided by all that water separating us from the Americas! I'm not too worried about verbal brickbats - my back is broad enough to take them!
On the other hand, I haven't seen much negative reaction so far, not even from our trans-Atlantic cousins.
@Freelanzer (10782)
• Canada
23 Mar 20
They need to use their common sense and get information from credible sources.
@SophiaMorros (5044)
• Belews Creek, North Carolina
23 Mar 20
I actually saw a post last week that claimed that the virus was the result of collusion on the part of the Democratic party and the Chinese to keep Trump from winning the 2020 election. The stupidity of what people share on social media completely baffles me.
1 person likes this
