This is foolish. There's clear evidence that SARS, Ebola, and AIDS outbreaks were made worse by underreaction, not over-. The first two were also fueled by "the real fear is fear itself" takes by public health leaders. nytimes.com/2020/01/29/opi…
In 2014, the desire to reassure and not cause panic about Ebola led public health authorities to make deceptive statements downplaying the risk, and even to compromise protective measures that might have prevented infections among health care workers. thenewatlantis.com/publications/t…
This was all aided by a raft of bad "the real virus is fear" pieces by American take writers.
But the CDC and WHO themselves misled about the risks: thenewatlantis.com/publications/u…
This was not an isolated case. Downplaying risks to avoid causing panic is a repeated pattern in disease outbreaks. It happened with SARS, and a Canadian government commission concluded that this likely contributed to a resurgence of the disease. hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-cul… 
Here's the full SARS Commission report. It's sobering reading. archives.gov.on.ca/en/e_records/s…
There's even a case to make that too little fear played a role in the slow response to AIDS: slate.com/culture/2003/0…
The lesson: In disease outbreaks, health authorities can best serve the public interest by focusing on our bodily health, not our cognitive hygiene. And journalists should serve as investigators and watchdogs, not as psychotherapists to the masses.
China already has more cases of coronavirus than it did of SARS, the Times reports today: nytimes.com/2020/01/29/wor…
(That should be "the real contagion is fear itself" in that first tweet.)
