Why Adhering to Coronavirus Guidelines is Not ‘Fearmongering’

Was it just me, or was everyone’s Instagram feed yesterday crammed full of, on the one hand, factual articles about coronavirus, the responses thereto by various government officials, sports franchises, and celebrities, and, on the other hand, people decrying all this information sharing and guideline-adjusting as ‘fearmongering’?

No? Just me?

The coronavirus, in addition to being what news outlets are calling ‘novel,’ as in, a new disease, is also requiring officials and the general public to stay malleable in response to it. Updates and changes seem to come hourly, and while I generally subscribe to the theory that it’s not healthy to check the news multiple times a day, I think in the case of a global health crisis, we should be. It’s pleasing me that CDC and local health authority guidelines are changing daily, that institutions of higher learning are staying plastic in their response, and that professional and college sports organizations are making historic changes to how and when games will be played and observed.

Why? Because the health of the sum of us is more valuable than the entertainment, the travel, and the profit of the some of us. I have travel plans in the next two weeks, and again a couple of months from now. I don’t want to disrupt those plans, especially when, say it…