Failure to Frame the Novel Coronavirus is Part of the Problem with the Discourse

A brief thought as I sit at my desk in my “home office”, working remotely during lunch. I feel like the media (in the collective), has dropped the ball in regards to the initial reporting of the virus that has caused the pandemic that has further divided our fragile country.

Most references I see are to COVID-19 or the coronavirus. What tends to get left out, or ignored, is the “novel” part of the coronavirus. Not novel in the sense of having a book written about it, folks. Novel in this case means “new”.

Personally, I think that’s significant. The emphasis should have been on the fact that this virus is different because, well, we know jack shit about it. We have information on flu virus and can develop vaccines because we know some things about them. We know what kind of damage they can possibly do, and can work on things to mitigate the damage/harm that they can cause.

The whole crux of the issue with a novel virus is that, basically, the son of a bitch has just burst onto the scene and makes an impact, and you find yourself scrambling to recover and figure things out.

An additional problem is the fact that science is always presented as settled fact. On some things, this is true, but that settled fact only came about after multiple, repeated experiments that validated an initial claim. The reality is that science evolves as technology evolves, as communication evolves, as we evolve as a society. Things change. Science, if done well, will evolve along with those changes.

But the fact of the matter is that this situation with the novel coronavirus is far from settled science right now. It is a fluid, changing situation as epidemiologist and virologists study it and learn more about how it presents and the havoc it can inflict on someone’s body.

For now, it appears that some people may present as asymptomatic. Some folks may be able to get it and have a helluva time with it, but still recover. Others are having worse times with it and dying at a horrifying rate. We still don’t know what the long term health effects might be on someone who catches it and recovers. Hell, we still don’t know if some can get it, recover, and then get reinfected by it.

What I’m trying to say is that we basically know diddly squat about what this thing is and does, but it doesn’t mean that we should rush out and throw all precaution to the wind and try to return to what life was back at this time last year. That would be foolish and foolhardy.

We need to exhibit some things that we have shown to be sorely lacking in our modern society.

We need to exhibit patience. We need to exhibit empathy. We need to exhibit selflessness. We need to exhibit curiosity.

We all need to talk less, listen more, and let the science be our guide. Even as it evolves. Even as it tells us what we don’t want to hear.