Scott Swanson
Sometimes it’s a little shattering to realize how … human … the news media can be.
The hysteria surrounding this coronavirus has certainly been a reminder of that.
I, and probably you, have an “ideal” for what we want our media, including this newspaper, to be: a reliable source of absolutely accurate information, in perfect context, presented with complete objectivity, and from a caring and, ideally, healthy, attractive persona in front of the camera.
Well, if you’ve noticed the photo at the top of this column, that last bit of the illusion should already be shattered.
Of course, just like our sometimes dashed hopes regarding our politicians and other community leaders – our educators, religious leaders, medical personnel, sports heroes, entertainment stars, etc., the painful reality is that we’re all mortal, sometimes mortifyingly so.
As I’ve watched the news broadcasts and the headlines concerning the spread of the COVID-19 virus, I’ve been particularly reminded how far from that ideal we can fall.
And lest you think this is going to be an exercise in self-righteous finger-pointing or cavil navel-gazing, that’s not really my intention. But it is a dose of reality, which will be important as we move into an election year in which we’d like to see all our problems solved by people who are ultimately fallible.
Although I certainly don’t want to make light of the severity of the actual COVID-19 disease, the realities of the situation seemed buried in much of the frenzied reporting on the spread of the virus – “we have breaking news, a live update on the three (count ‘em) confirmed cases of coronoavirus in our state!”
Of course, this is an infectious disease – just like the common cold or the stomach flu, so it isn’t something to ignore. But how serious is it, really, to us here in little ‘ol Sweet Home, Oregon?
Though it certainly is contagious (116,059 cases worldwide, at last count, attributed to the disease as your newspaper went to press) and it can be fatal (4,089 deaths), how risky is it in comparison, say, to the nasty flu bugs that sweep through our community each winter?
We’ve seen public officials, everybody from President Trump on down to our local officials, scrambling to assure us that everything is under control. Whether it is or not is another story, which one the media have been trying to cover.
It’s been a little messy, but news coverage is often very messy, sometimes, especially when people are all stirred up. A recent (helpful, I thought) Associated Press report quoted a retired Harvard risk management instructor who said that people see facts through the filter of their emotions, which complicates things. Hmmm. (By the way, the story can be seen at abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/science-risky-virus-mind-mislead-69404385.)
In this business, things generally don’t happen in an orderly fashion and information isn’t always easily accessible, particularly when news organizations are fielding staffs that are significantly decreased even from what they were during the last really big national chaos-inducing tragedy I can remember, Sept. 11, 2001.
One big problem is today’s social media-oriented world, in which the above-mentioned emotional filters are connected to microphones and cameras and distribution equipment that far surpasses anything we had in 2001.
The news media feel constant pressure to be right on top of it because they know you’re reading everybody else’s Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or watching YouTube or whatever. It’s a stampede out there, folks, and rational decisions are hard to come by in that environment.
If this is hysteria, I think we can blame ourselves. We live in a society in which we’re so used to instantaneous gratification of our “needs” that, especially in an election year, public officials and, by extension, some of the media feel a lot of pressure to deliver.
I was reminded of this recently as we shopped for toilet paper. I’d heard that there’s been a run on TP and canned goods and other survival necessities after the general population realized there was an outside chance they might need to sequester themselves in the event the virus were to arrive here in Linn County.
Well, they were right about that. The store in which we planned to purchase that necessity was – out of stock. And if you’ve been riding the wave of news flashes about this, here are the grim facts: It’s not just toilet paper. It’s surgical masks. It’s canned food. It’s sanitary wipes. Producers are working around the clock to keep us stocked up, but they’re failing to meet the demand.
The stock market has tanked after the flow of goods from China faltered. Classes and public events are being canceled. Airlines are dropping their prices to try to keep people in their planes. Businesses are telling employees to work from home. The State Department announced it’s recommending people cancel their vacation cruises.
OK, back to basics: Who’s most affected by this virus? From what we’ve seen so far in news reports, it’s pretty obvious that the most vulnerable are the elderly and infirm, which explains Washington State’s statistics – 16 of the 19 fatalities in the state as of noon on Monday from the illness have been residents of a care home in King County.
For most other people, the coronavirus has apparently been akin to a nasty case of the flu, and some reports have said young children seem to be least affected, some not even displaying symptoms.
Meanwhile, although this scourge has led to more than 100,000 illnesses and more than 3,000 deaths worldwide, the regular ol’ seasonal flu has caused an estimated 34 million illnesses, 350,000 hospitalizations and 20,000 deaths in the U.S. alone this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Again, I’m probably repeating a question you’ve already asked, but how much of this is media and political hype and how much of it is a real threat?
How much of this is due to the fact that many of us apparently reside very high on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
If you’re hazy on that one, you may recall from your school days how psychologist Abraham Maslow rated human “necessities” from basic physiological requirements, such as air and food and water, to more self-indulgent “needs” such as love and belonging, self-actualization, etc.
The latter is the stuff we don’t really think about when we’re laboring up a steep mountainside, 40 miles from the nearest civilization. But it sure becomes important when we’re not fighting for life.
At this point I wonder if our preoccupation with this new flu bug is due to simply too much information and too much threat to our own convenience and comfort?
Regardless, I guess all I can hope for is that my colleagues in the coronavirus infection hotspots can put aside the filters and provide some good, solid, old-fashioned journalistic enterprise and figure out how to get real answers.
Like what to do with all that extra toilet paper.