In January 2020, when COVID first emerged as an unknown virus in Wuhan, I distinctly remember voicing my concerns to a friend who was planning to travel to Southeast Asia a few weeks later. At the time, there were only a handful of cases reported outside Wuhan. However, I had seen videos of police welding doors shut, citizens falling to the ground, livestock being culled, makeshift hospitals constructed to support tens of thousands of patients, and reported case numbers growing exponentially – daily, on the John’s Hopkins worldwide COVID-19 dashboard. I had developed an idea and image of what the virus was…and understood it was capable of becoming the monstrous pandemic we had only seen in disaster movies.

Despite the rapid growth, severity, and seemingly unstoppable spread beyond the initial ground zero in Wuhan, the World Health Organization (WHO) seemed to downplay the scope and severity of the outbreak – declining to call COVID-19 a pandemic until months later.

“The WHO chief has walked a tightrope, trying to lead the global health-care response, keep communication channels open with China and avoid unnecessary panic.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-02-27/coronoavirus-why-the-who-won-t-call-covid-19-a-pandemic

As is often the case, the lack of clarity and misinformation from the source can cause us to develop a worst case scenario understanding of the situation. China was not forthcoming with information or data, at best. As a result, each data point, each article from the press, each speech from our leadership, and every first hand account gained heightened attention as we constructed the image of the “invisible enemy” in our minds.

So, with the dearth of information and data clarity, we (as a society) developed an anchoring bias with COVID-19, with our primary lens through the media. The areas impacted early became a focal point for our foundational understanding. Over a year later and through two massive waves of COVID cases, New York City stands apart as one of the hardest hit areas. With the horrific fatalities rates of nursing home residents, the city as a whole suffered worse than any jurisdiction in the US. Over 35% of all deaths in New York City involved COVID-19 in 2020. That is more than three times the average of other states and jurisdictions around the country. For comparison, California and Florida saw around 10% of deaths involve COVID-19 as one of the causes of death in 2020. Given 12 percent of all US newsroom employees live in New York City, much of the media had a front row seat to the worst of the worst.

With such a huge impact to New York City at such a critical time for the country, it isn’t surprising the media developed an understanding that was shaped by personal experience and direct exposure as much as the objective science and situations in other jurisdictions. It seems apparent climate, population density, and other environmental factors play a critical role in the transmission and severity of COVID-19. Many suburban or rural communities have seen a much smaller impact and government mandates, restrictions, and media reporting should reflect the reality for localities whenever possible. Top-down fearmongering has been, and will continue to be, an unproductive way to overcome this invisible adversary.