Most people have mild symptoms — good
fortune that paradoxically can make the disease
harder to contain because many won’t realize
they have the coronavirus, she noted.
“I keep reminding the viewers that still, based
on two very large studies, the vast majority of
people who get this infection are not going to
get sick,” said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s medical
correspondent. “They’re going to have a mild
illness, if any, and they’re going to recover. This
tends to be very reassuring to people. But I
don’t want to minimize this. We’re dealing with
something that is growing and becoming a
legitimate pandemic.”
“Pandemic” — defined by Webster’s as an
outbreak that occurs over a wide geographic
area and affects an exceptionally high
proportion of the population — is one of the
scary-sounding words and phrases that some
journalists take care about using.
Fahey said the AP avoids calling it a “deadly”
disease because, for most people, it isn’t. Dr. John
Torres, medical correspondent at NBC News,
edits out phrases like “horrific” or “catastrophic.”
“I try not to delve too much in adjectives,”
Torres said.
Nearly every day brings word of more cases,
in more countries. That’s news. Yet should
journalists consider the cumulative impact
of a statistical drumbeat? “At some point the
numbers become less meaningful,” Gupta said.
Images, too, merit careful consideration. Pictures
of people wearing face masks often illustrate
stories, despite evidence that the masks matter
little in transmission of the virus, Nowak said.Image: Justin Chin