Keeping perspective in the age of COVID-19

Wednesday, El Centro Regional Medical Center confirmed that two patients had tested positive for novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

On Thursday, it appeared the community might run out of toilet paper.

I’ve never seen anything quite like the fear surrounding this new illness. I don’t want to be too flippant about it, because, for certain, people are going to get sick, and some may even die. But I’ve not read any evidence yet they’re likely to poop themselves to death.

Nor have I heard any links between COVID-19 and excessive menstruating. I was in line behind a shopper Thursday who had managed to fill a cart with toilet paper and maxi-pads. I decided not to ask.

Maybe it’s my fault. After all, I am a member of the media, and this entire coronavirus thing would have never gotten so bad if we would have just kept it to ourselves.

“If the media wasn’t hyping it … we’d not even know about it until it was over,” noted one Facebook commentator I have dubbed The Genius. “Hell who even knows what virus strains are going around for flu season any given year. … The flu shot is always 2-year-old virus … jeez!!”

This is the classic “ignorance confers immunity” argument, better known as “too smart for your own good.” In other words, no health threat becomes dangerous until people know about it.

That must be why I’ve never had congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV). I don’t know enough about it to get sick.

I don’t envy community officials in the slightest right now. This is a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-youdon’t situation if I ever saw one. No one really knows how bad the situation can or will get. Guessing wrong costs lives or money. Guessing right might save lives, but it still costs money, and people inevitably are going to regard the lives saved much like they would the proverbial tree that falls in the woods. If you didn’t get sick, does that necessarily mean you would have?

I’ve seen countless social media posts dismissing COVID-19, the media coverage and the public reaction to it as nothing but hype. Certainly, there’s been panic, but hype? The media didn’t invent this thing, and they didn’t issue the public health bulletins and order quarantines.

The logic governing the “hype” argument goes something like this: One, a disease appears, like Ebola, SARS or Zika. Two, health agencies issue alerts, and the media report on them. Three, most people don’t die.

When an insufficient number of people die, it’s a hoax (apparently, the idea that containment worked is not a possibility). When many die, it’s got to be someone’s fault.

Several local events, including this year’s Naval Air Show, have been canceled or postponed. Virtually every professional sports league you could think of is on hold. Disneyland is closed. The Coachella Music Festival is postponed. The list goes on.

And the decision makers are stuck holding the bag. Canceling events is a drain on the economy. It impacts jobs, sales, wages — the whole economic circle of life.

Right now, there are two confirmed cases of COVID-19 in El Centro. According to health officials, both patients likely contracted the illness while out of state. That means there are no locally transmitted cases of the illness confirmed to date.

That suggests maybe it’s not necessary to clear the shelves of toilet paper, especially since this is a respiratory disease. There’s no evidence it’s spreading like wildfire through the community.

On the other hand, it is a respiratory disease, one known to be especially dangerous to patients suffering from pre-existing conditions such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure. Given we live in a region where those particular health issues are in abundance, it’s probably wise to exercise caution, albeit tempered with common sense.