Deluge of information poses its own challenges

In COVID-19 crisis, key is to check, double check and trust the credible authorities, John Gormley says.

Besides the inexplicable decision to stockpile toilet paper — an actual one-month apocalypse-style home lockdown would have TP as the least of our worries — the outbreak of COVID -19 is a mystery not helped by the modern information age.

Like the connection paradox of the internet, where we’ve never been more connected, yet more lonely and with fewer authentic relationships, the information age was supposed to give us everything at the blink of a cursor. But it hasn’t turned out that way.

In the same way that the digital world has witnessed the breakdown of trust in institutions, decision-making and authority, COVID -19 is an example of the phenomenon that the more information we have, the less we trust.

As people dissect and process information, two unhelpful strains of thought emerge:

One argument is that we are being overhyped on coronavirus speculation in order to frighten us into behaving certain ways or doing certain things. In this regard, sensationalistic media reporting doesn’t help.

The converse argument is that we’re not being told enough about COVID-19 because the horrifying truth would cause public panic and the breakdown of civil order. In other words, some will think that if we really knew “the truth” it would make a run on toilet paper look like child’s play.

As usual, there’s a middle ground that you’ll find if you look. COVID -19 is a zoonotic respiratory infection, meaning originally transmitted between animals and people, and is a novel virus not previously identified in humans. It can spread very quickly.

Those who fear the worst point to recent posts, purportedly from an Italian trauma physician, chronicling Italian hospitals, ERS, and intensive care wards overwhelmed like some terrifying dystopian movie.

It is an uncomfortable read. On the other hand, some minimize the threat by pointing to COVID -19 cases that displayed few symptoms and, though spread from close contact, were more like a brief chest cold with a fever.

As a severe acute respiratory syndrome that can bring on pneumonia and severe lung distress, COVID-19 can seriously strain health care facilities. The most susceptible patients — but not all — tend to be elderly and with pre-existing high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.

Time Magazine observes that the death rate ends up being much lower when a greater number of patients are tested, including mild and asymptomatic ones: “the mortality rate in South Korea, where more than 1,100 tests have been administered per million residents, comes out to just 0.6 per cent, for example. In the U.S., where only seven tests have been administered per million residents, the mortality rate is above 5 per cent.”

Communication is critical, as it balances public awareness and promoting positive behaviour while, at the same time, trying not to induce panic. For authoritative detail, the true professionals have so far been impressive, including Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, the reassuring and professional Dr. Theresa Tam.

But even these public health experts, limited by the evolving knowledge of COVID -19, on one hand assure us that social distancing, common sense and hand washing will suffice, yet on the other hand, support quarantining people who merely ended up on the same cruise ship as some who contracted the virus.

This leads to some of the public disconnect that psychologists identify as leading to panic: Conflicting messages or lack of clear direction that results in people filling in their own blanks or overreacting and overcompensating (hoarding toilet paper) to give themselves some feeling of control.

There is a lot of information around. And, like so much in our data-heavy modern world, check, double check and trust the credible authorities. But verify.