On My Strong Inkling that if We Didn't Have Ratings-Grubbing 24-Hour Cable-News Networks and Social-Media Conglomerates Led by Power-Mongering Psychopaths (so Back to 1980 or Something), the Vast Percentage of Us Wouldn't Have Ever Known About COVID, the Deaths Would Have Been Attributed to the Co-Morbidities or to a Bad Influenza Season, and the Crushing of Our Economy and Civil Liberties Would Have Never Happened

No, you can't prove a counterfactual but on this particular point......I'm thinking that I might be right. Food for thought anyway.