TK Mashup: "Children of the COVID"

The latest tour de force by Matt Orfalea reminds us of the insane media scaremongering about children and COVID

“I’m more worried for children than I’ve ever been.”

“It is picking off young people like we’ve never seen.”

“Think of the children!”

As Matt Orfalea shows above in his new “Children of the COVID” video, this was real press commentary stretching across years about a Covid-19 virus now recognized to pose an extraordinarily small risk to children.

Living in America in the last 6-7 years has been like being trapped in a fugue state, where reality is kaleidoscopic, memory is elusive, and moments of clarity sometimes more jarring than reassuring. To be reminded of what we were told day after day for years, after being trained to forget, is like waking from an unpleasant dream, prompting thoughts like, “Did that really happen?”

In Matt’s video, we see how the pandemic was reported not as a collective problem to be solved, but a horror movie to be passively experienced. This is a media approach we see deployed in a variety of issues from fake news to “sonic weapons,” one that trains frightened audiences to endorse extreme solutions and outsource thinking to authorities. This makes it all the more important that we remember episodes like “Children of the COVID,” the next time we’re told to Be afraid. Be very afraid.