Cut The Noise

 12 March 2020

“What you see depends on where you are standing,” was a favorite phrase of one of my friends on the school board through that hellish four years.  In that case we were talking about racism and the perquisites of privilege.  Now, in the age of the coronavirus I am seeing that phrase in a different light.  If you are 60 or over the virus means something completely different to you than if you are 28.  A 5% mortality rate for those in their sixties is far different than one below 1% that people in their twenties are facing.

Both my wife and I fall in that over sixty group, and we each have conditions that increase the lethality of the disease if we are to become infected.  Me, I can check multiple boxes off of the conditions that increase the danger of the disease. Thus, I/we have made decisions to limit our exposure to the world outside.

My decision has been made based on articles I have read and the information on the CDC website.  I read the news each day.  As I do, I see such a wide array of opinions mostly as to what the coronavirus really means.  You have the left using it to call for universal health care, you have the right wing calling it a Democratic Party plot to undermine President Trump.  Almost everyone has an opinion and advice.  But like we used to say back in my drinking days, opinions are like assholes, everyone has one. 

Me, I try and keep up with the local news.  For the most part I don’t watch over the air TV ‘cause I got rid of cable long ago.  Except for the Weather Channel and the CBC, I don’t miss it. However, I do go out and read the stories, and sometimes watch the video clips, found on the two local stations websites. On one of the two today I found this bit of advice.  The piece quoted a local mental health therapist, Dr. Elizabeth Allen. She noted it was easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of information flying around right now concerning the coronavirus.  She urged people to not let this pandemic hurt your mental health. "Really just focus on one or two trusted resources," said Allen.

Makes sense to me.  Maybe we should all take a moment and develop a routine.  Stay away from news sites except for say at the breakfast and dinner hours.  For goodness sake don’t look at the tabloid headlines, especially not before bed. My recommendations are to check on the CDC site every so often to see what the current recommendations. Pick a news outlet that is a more neutral one from the US, I leave it to your discretion on that.  But I would also urge look at what one of the other world news services is saying, like the BBC or the CBC.  Both have solid websites without the coloration of partisan political bias in the US.

If we cut out the noise, we reduce the fear and panic.  We can then with calm reasoning make choices for ourselves and our communities that will help us deal with this very serious problem facing both ourselves and the world.