Kathleen Parker in WaPo 'taking a breath'...
Two threads of interest have emerged from the coronavirus “crisis”: One is an apparent generational divide related to relative worry; the other is the degree to which the media are contributing to the virus’s propagation.
I qualify “crisis” because, though we’ve had a steady rise in confirmed cases — and President Trump declared a national emergency Friday — a crisis seems yet to have occurred.
This isn’t to say that a crisis isn’t in our future but to suggest that the constant barrage of cataclysmic tidings, some of it false or misleading, could conceivably stress people’s immune systems to the detriment of their health.
That said, one might not be wrong to disconnect from whatever medium delivers the latest information.
Obviously, we need to keep up, but folks such as me who are umbilically connected to news channels risk making ourselves sick. The connection between elevated stress levels and reduced immunity is well documented. Thus it seems entirely feasible that we increase our vulnerability to disease and infection by being overexposed to a continuing cycle of drastic news.
