Corona Media Speak # 8 Underlying Health Conditions

.

Euphemistic language exists to convey sublimated shame dishonestly.

The art lies in crafting manipulative language that sounds innocuous, but which is carefully calculated to allow delivery of  implied messages that everyone understands, but that can be officially denied.  

The phrase ‘underlying health conditions’ is a staple of health service twitter accounts and media portals at the moment and is deployed thus: 

‘Today we had xx deaths of people WITH the corona virus – ALL HAD UNDERLYING HEALTH CONDITIONS”

The reason this euphemism is being deployed so widely in the UK at the moment is because the Tories are fearful of a backlash if the government’s callous formula for (not) ‘dealing’ with the corona virus becomes known.

One is reminded of the formula outlined in the film Fight Club. Used by car company executives when investigating fatal road crashes, it explains how corporate America measures human life in dollars and cents only:

“A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.”

In the case of the Corona Virus, the formula the government is applying is very similar. 

“The Covid-19 virus leaves from somewhere and starts to kill lots of elderly and vulnerable people. Now, should the government initiate a lock down to contain the virus in the UK?  Take the number of people likely to die from the virus, A, multiply by the PR hit the government is likely to take for each death, B; calculate the economic cost of each death, C.  A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the economic and PR cost of a lock down – they won’t do one.”

Simple. Bojo’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings expressed the formula even more succinctly when bullet pointing the government’s strategy in a secret meeting:

• herd immunity
• protect the economy
• if some old people die then so be it”

His words (officially denied) were leaked to the press and sound all too plausible given Dominic’s fondness for eugenics and ultra right wing thinking; plus it reflects the reality of months of creative governmental inertia on the ground. 

Just like Trump’s corporate America (the role model for Boris Johnson’s hard right conservatism), the UK is desperately dragging leaden feet about a lock down, hoping that;

• A goodly chunk of the PR hit for the deaths can be blamed on the hoi polloi
• Summer will slow the death rate
• An incoming vaccine will make the problem go away
• Bruised libertarian sensibilities and naked self-interest will trump angst about unnecessary deaths.   

In this context it is frightfully important politically for the Government to be able to minimise the number of deaths attributable to its ‘herd immunity’ and ‘do as little as possible’ policies. 

So the game is to use their friends in the corporate media (the BBC especially) to raise clouds of doubt around the headline figure for deaths –  which, thanks to the Government’s ‘do as little as possible’ policy, is likely to be amongst the highest in the world.

The ongoing trick is to shroud just how many people have died FROM the Corona virus in utter confusion by tweeting that they died AFTER A DIAGNOSIS OF Covid-19 or that xx patients died WITH the virus but they of course all had… (drum roll please)

..UNDERLYING HEALTH CONDITIONS..

and / or were OVER XX YEARS OF AGE.

Quite what the underlying heath conditions are is never specified. Advanced hair loss? Indigestion? A gammy hip? We’ll never know – confidential innit – which is why this is such a sly tactic. 

The hidden message that the government really wants you to buy into is this:

1. They were going to die anyway
2. They were too old to be worth saving and fit for the knackers yard in any event.
3. It’s not our fault they died

Cue shrugged shoulders and the dispatch of official ‘thoughts and prayers’. 

The truth that the UK government cynically hides behind euphemisms, is that elderly and vulnerable people are EXPENDABLE and a nuisance to them. This is why the phrase  ‘underlying health conditions’ is always deployed alongside death statistics – they are hoping you’ll shrug your shoulders too. 

By tory reckoning, people with ‘underlying health conditions’ cost money and saving such a bothersome demographic is not worth the  political / economic cost of an effective lock down. One need only look at the 130,000 needless deaths from Tory austerity to see this mindset at work.

So when you are watching BBC News and Sky News over the coming weeks and they say:

“xxx people died today after being diagnosed WITH the Corona Virus, all had underlying health conditions”

– decode it thus:

“xxx people died today and we won’t say how many died FROM the Corona Virus as it is politically inconvenient – but they were all old, half-dead anyway (probably) and thus it’s not our fault that some expendable people died.“

People are about to lose loved ones before their time (as Bojo helpfully signalled) – not because the government is “following the science” or losing some war against Covid-19 that it even wants to wage, but because the English establishment values financial and political gain over human life.

Knowing this will provide no comfort whatsoever to the bereaved – but at least they’ll know what kind of society they are living in…

…and what to do when Bojo and chums send their thoughts and prayers.

Since 2013 I have worked between 4-6 hours a day on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and uncovering truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.

I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.  

If you found this article useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.     

Click here to follow Sodium Haze on Facebook