The current outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) has become a hot topic. As stated in World Health Organization’s website “Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV). A novel coronavirus (nCoV) is a new strain that has not been previously identified in humans.”
By now you may know all you need to know about the situation, enough to go on social media platforms and argue about it. Unlike the health professionals who have no choice but follow the scientific evidence and practices bound by many laws, you, as a member of the general public may have the opportunity to be irresponsible, expressing what you want to say not just on social media but at many places regarding the current outbreak and anything that is relevant to the topic. By now you may also know all the necessary information such as the common signs of infection and the standard recommendations to prevent the infection spread. Yet we may keep up with the local and international experts, updating information and we must be aware of their advocacy instead of causing anxiety.
The current coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak is handled by different countries in their own ways. Information is shared and messages are delivered. When the authorities are transparent and media seem to cover all aspects, it brings out a certain level of relief in the civil society.
On the other hand, it can sometimes be overwhelming and hard to digest, way too many ideas, opinions, demands, analysis and discussions happening, now that we have borderless social media platforms to voice whatever we want to get out of our chests. However, coronavirus cannot be allowed to spread like that. Therefore, just like other times when the world population has to face these types of public/global health issues this time too measures are being taken into consideration to prepare for dealing with the Wuhan coronavirus.
Perhaps now that we enjoy the freedom of speech, often misunderstanding or sometimes completely forgetting that there is a difference between the truth and everything else, not only in this particular public health issue, but also in other chaotic, serious or falsely created situations we reach a point where there is little we can do to stop people being irresponsible. It is needless to mention the idle chat happening in social media as these lengthy commentaries are ill defined or politically biased, but the impact of such commentaries may lead to deliver a harmful message to civil society which may end up in the public getting into unnecessary panic.
Countries look at this public health issue in their own angles. Sometimes certain individuals in North America take the situation as a threat directly coming from China. Therefore, there are questions like “should we receive mail from China? Should we stop importing?” Some people suggest temporarily avoiding Chinese food. Some people ask if this is really a serious global health issue or just anti-Chinese propaganda in the media? People are full of questions, ideas and opinions.
Nevertheless, what is more important is that there is a system to take all possible preventive measures to avoid/or reduce the impact of the virus, to ensure safety and help members of the community if anyone is affected. The most important question is how the governments approach the issue to look after its people.
As mentioned above, different countries have their own methods and systems when it comes to handling public health issues and also different policies in rescuing their citizens from disaster zones or from epidemic-stricken areas. Before the social media era such things were not considered as causing home troubles. Those missions were simply acknowledged and accepted as the saying, ‘the hanging fruit is never too heavy for the creeper to bear.’ And people who are involved in such missions and handling public health issues shouldn’t be frowned upon. Instead, they should be applauded, encouraged and appreciated so that it sets an example of the standards we expect to live.