Going viral

What the science says

THE GOOD part about this news concerning the coronavirus is all the hand-washing going on. Bottles of sanitizer around the office are draining quickly. The kids have learned to sneeze into their elbows. We wouldn’t be a bit surprised if this had an effect on the regular flu going around.

The Associated Press once again had an important story late last week on the coronavirus written by reporter Malcolm Ritter. The story didn’t play down the risks, but played up the perspective. For which Mr. Ritter deserves a thankyou note. Consider this it.

The headline:

How risky is that virus? Your mind may mislead

The nut graph: “As the viral infections spread across the globe, everybody has to make a decision: How worried should I be about getting infected, and what should I do about it?”

The coronavirus has a lot of people on edge. But that was the case with Ebola, also. And SARS. And swine flu. And bird flu. And the Zika virus during the last Olympics. Which one caused the sitting vice president at the time—Joe Biden—to warn people to stay off airplanes? (The airline industry didn’t send him a Christmas card that year.)

Malcolm Ritter’s story quoted a psychologist from the University of Oregon, Paul Slovic, who said the coronavirus hits the “hot buttons” (again). Most of the reports you see in the media keep count on the number of people who have tested positive, and the number of people who have died. Not on those who’ve become infected but only had mild coughs or maybe a tiny temp. “We’re getting only the scary information.”

Social media doesn’t help. David Ropeik, a retired Harvard instructor on risk communication, told our correspondent that regular people, not just health authorities or presidents, can make a difference. By not overreacting.

“Don’t be a 24/7 information victim,” he said. “Log off, put your phone down, pick up a book . . . Shut down your risk radar screen for a while . . . You’re probably just as much at risk or safe tomorrow as you are now, whether you stay online all the time or not.”

That sounds like sound advice. For the record, while we were reading this report on apnews.com, we noticed a link in the middle of the piece. Full Coverage: Virus Outbreak We didn’t click on it. We’ll hear enough about it tonight around the supper table.