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Stonehedge
@Chalfie
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/02/21/robert-peckham-covid-19-outbreak-need-strategies-manage-panic-epidemics/
Herein lies the rub. Communication, which is so central to public health, also turns out to be key to panic. Circuits of information can all too easily flip to become conduits of misinformation. The technologies that connect us have the wherewithal to drive us apart. Public health messages that seek to jolt us out of complacency can all too readily alarm us. Panic, in other words, can be a hair’s breadth away from prudent concern.
There’s also a thin line between misinformation and uncertainty, particularly in the midst of an epidemic. The identity of the causal pathogen may be unknown, its epidemiology obscure, and the spectrum of clinical manifestations confusing. All of this is grist to the panic mill.