The Hantavirus Outbreak: A Crisis of Perception The recent hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship has highlighted the tension between public health officials and the media's portrayal of emerging disease outbreaks.
While medical professionals have been clear about the relatively low risk to the general public, the media's framing of the story has led to a curious phenomenon: we're being asked to worry, then promptly told not to.
This approach obscures the complexity of the situation. By focusing on individual fear, we miss the larger implications of an outbreak that could have far reaching consequences.