News reporting has become more about being dramatic and driving advertising click counts than actually reporting the news. Technacilly maybe an island but who would click on and read the article if the lead was “small amount of sand on a reef wiped out by hurricane” ?
Recently I read an article about a non-descript bacteria that is somewhat commonly seen in hospitals mutating to a drug resistant bacteria causing blindness, brain absessesand death with days. It appeared to be a fluff scare article but, I wasn’t certain. So I showed it to one of the infectious disease docs I respect at our hospital to get her opinion. While there were aspects that are true, there is a drug resistant form of this bacteria, most of the article was hype and drama.