Who Gives You Your Daily Infectious Dose of COVID-19 News?

COVID Carrie
Apr 9, 2020
6 min read

Dear I-Don't-Understand-Why-You-Disagree-With-Me,

As I see it, lots of people, especially politicians, are wasting valuable energy, time, and attention debating differing opinions when they should be collaborating to seek the facts and take swift action.

Look at my scribble in the picture. Three people are staring at the same curved line with a loop in it. A fourth person is looking at the three people and the line. Person one declares, “It’s a nine.” Person 2 replies, “You must be an idiot, it’s obviously a SIX!” Do you think it matters how loud or emphatically either one screams "SIX" or "NINE?" Is either person going to change their views? Nope. Not likely.

The third person can’t quite place it. It doesn’t look exactly like anything they know well. But after studying it, they join in with, “It sort of looks like an 'LO' to me.”

Who is right? Does that even matter? Right and wrong are value judgments. In a way, they are all wrong. It’s just a shape. It isn’t a number or letter until our brains interpret that it is based on past beliefs and experiences.

The coronavirus pandemic is like this line, only fuzzier. We are all studying it and it is something that none of us encountered in our lifetimes. This may be why the information provided about COVID-19 by various news sources lacks a common understanding.

In this post, I urge you to consider the idea that we are all in bubbles that we must step out of to fight this crisis together. If we step back and try to get the big picture view, we will be able to stop shouting “six” and “nine” and instead focus our energies on studying it objectively together.

Think about all the ways you learned about COVID-19 in the last week. Next, I'll ask you to answer five questions. After this exercise, you may decide to change how you consume pandemic-related news.

1. Proactive or Passive?

Are you passively letting Google, Facebook, YouTube, one specific news outlet, friends, or family give you your COVID-19 news?

Our news feed sources pick what they know we’ll like based on our interests. While this is delightful for things like ensuring cat lovers get cat videos instead of dog videos and vice versa, it is terrible during urgent crises like this coronavirus pandemic.

Remember that telephone game as a kid? You say something and repeat it. That goes on and on and by the end what is said is completely different. Evidence-based information that can save lives is being filtered and changed by the time it gets to you if you are getting your science-based information second or third hand.

The information you receive will be more accurate and informed if you proactively visit credible sources instead of passively taking what is fed to you. I recommend you have a few go-to sources that you read first before you get sucked into a mindless feed of information.

2. Expert or Not?

Are the people you are letting give you information educated and experienced experts?

When the breaks on your vehicle feel strange, do you run to your hairdresser and ask, “Is it safe to drive?” No. Because you have the common sense to ask your mechanic. They will tell you what they think. You will listen and take their advice without second-guessing them.

You respect your mechanic’s opinion because you recognize that you do not have this expertise and that you need to rely on an expert for their knowledge and experience. You believe that they know better than you when it IS and IS NOT safe to drive without endangering yourself or others when your brakes go out while you are speeding down the highway.

Now imagine what the roads would be like to drive on if half the people behind their wheels never consulted a mechanic. Imagine that half of the people you share the road with getting their car advice from politicians or media talking heads. Can you imagine how many more people would die in traffic accidents? A LOT!

The same logic should apply to the COVID-19 pandemic!

Please spend most of your time and attention reading, learning, and then sharing the opinions of people we should respect because they have trained their whole lives to help us in this situation. Trust the people who know a heck of a lot more about this than you or I: epidemiologists, the WHO, the CDC, the NIH, state and local public health departments, hospitals, virologists, and medical personnel who have experience with and are trained in infectious diseases.

Please don’t blindly repeat the views of other non-experts. Celebrities, business owners, politicians, media personalities, athletes, hairdressers, mechanics, and even most of your friends and family are not experts.

I’m not saying all of your favorite non-experts are incorrect in everything they say. And I’m not saying that they don’t have your best interest in mind or that they are bad people. It is just that the one thing expertise gives a person is a perspective that someone who has not studied a topic extensively just doesn’t have. Experts in pandemics are going to see things more clearly, and with fewer biases clouding their view than non-experts on the subject. An expert is going to be more like the person on the outside looking with a wider view because they have more of the big picture information in their minds than a non-expert does.

You can help stop the spread of the coronavirus by stopping the spread of non-expert opinions and widening your own viewpoint.

3. Global or Local?

Are you including learning from sources outside the USA?

Who specifically should you be listening to for a global perspective on the pandemic? The World Health Organization, WHO- that’s who!

This is a global pandemic. It is critical to understand how this is affecting the entire world, not just your own country. Nations are learning from one another and collaborating in ways they never have before. If you limit your news intake to USA-based sources you might miss out on the terrifying yet inspiring feeling of being just a human on earth at the mercy of an invisible enemy that does not see borders.

The WHO is gathering, studying and learning from data from the entire globe. Regardless of where you get your news normally, in this crisis, I urge you to go to the WHO first for your information. In addition to their website, you can follow them on most social media platforms.

In addition to the WHO, pick a few other countries and listen to their news too. That will help you develop a broader perspective on how other countries are experiencing the pandemic and you’ll also learn what other countries think about how we are handling it in our country.

For example, The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control COVID-19 page is a great resource.

Then, you will want to check your state and local public health department and governor’s sites for up to date information that is relevant to your local area. By understanding the situation in the entire country first, however, you will better be able to put your own community and state’s circumstances in perspective.

4. Many or One?

Does your USA-based pandemic information come from a variety of sources?

After first getting a global update from the WHO, and other countries, for USA-specific pandemic information and advice you should visit the scientific, expert-led non-political public health agencies and research institutions. This includes the CDC, the NIH, and universities at the forefront of this pandemic such as John Hopkins University .

If you get all of your news from only one source or from many but all non-science-led platforms, beware. You might be putting yourself in an unsafe bubble of misinformation.

Politicians have not trained their lives to handle pandemics. They have been preparing to get re-elected and make you like them.

Media outlets have not trained in emergency communication best practices during a pandemic. They are trained to get you to think their station is more entertaining and engaging than the others.

5. Education or Entertainment?

Be honest, when you watch the news, are you doing it because you really want to learn or do you want to be entertained?

If you spend time on the sites I recommend such as WHO, NIH, and the CDC, you might find them too technical if you are non-technical, too simplified if you are an expert, and not much fun, regardless of who you are. Their videos are more like something we’d watch in school than flashy news shows.

We have been accustomed to a lack of separation of factual rigorous journalism and opinion/entertainment press.

Maybe you are thinking, but I only want to watch [insert your favorite go-to site for information]. Are you saying I shouldn’t watch this? No, just watch opinions and entertainment-type “news” after you’ve got the gist from the experts, a global perspective, on the day’s events. Then go have fun surfing around your favorite news sites, blogs, youtube, late-night show hosts, political talking heads, or whatever apps interest you.

And that includes COVID Chat, too! Only visit me here after you have got the latest news updates from many of the sites I listed.

Please, proactively curate a careful list of who you trust to give you your daily infectious dose of COVID-19 news. Widen your view on the coronavirus pandemic by consulting several sources providing expert and global perspectives.

Now go widen your news view, COVID Carrie

Recommended Coronavirus Pandemic Information Sources

WORLD