CBC News is frequently very wrong on matters COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 infections. This is an example. A bad one, that will only cause unnecessary worry , scare people. The consequences are severe for some, loosing friends and family.
What is wrong about it? It is out of context and exaggerated.
1/10
First of all, there are no COVID infection, the infectious agent is called SARS-CoV-2. It is a coronavirus, such as NL63, 229E, OC43 and HKU.1, which infect us regularly. Does it have any additional properties? No, it does not.
But any infection and the inflammatory process can cause damage.
2/10
All this time this has been a gripe of mine, that around the world press and governmental organizations played fast and loose with this language which actually caused a lot of confusion in the public later on.
Separating the disease from the cause is slightly more complicated, yes, but it ended up being even more complicated in the end when people did not understand what was going on with both the pandemic and vaccines and other such topics. The confusion between the disease and the infectious agent really harmed the public around the world.
Anyway, we are years out now, the damage has been done, and unfortunately I don't think this lesson is going to be learned by public health authorities going forward. I really wish it was otherwise, though.
But thanks for pointing it out. I just wish this got more attention so the general public would be better informed about how health works.
