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Executive Summary

During stressful, uncertain times like the COVID-19 pandemic, its normal to be scared. Your family is likely also scared and everyone you seem to know on social media is scared as well. These feelings can spread, something known as negative emotional contagion, which can make us less equipped for dealing with the unknown. But by learning what it is and how it works, you can start making positive emotions more infectious. This can help you feel more prepared and in control and will help others feel the same way as well.

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You are scared. Your family is scared. Everyone you seem to know on social media is scared. And with good reason: Things are uncertain. We dont feel in control. Everything is shifting, and fast. We dont know what the rules are. We arent sure what will happen to us, our livelihoods, our families. And it doesnt necessarily feel short-term. So what do you do?

While medical and public health leaders working as hard as they can to control the spread of the novel coronavirus, we of course listen to and heed their advice. But experts in emotional intelligence also have something powerful to offer a way to help us manage a different type of contagion that, if we let it run rampant, will only make things worse. Stemming negative emotional contagion and making positive emotions more infectious will make us feel more prepared and in control during this frightening period.

Weve long known that panic spreads, but experts more recently have come to understand emotional contagion, the mechanism by which peoples emotions (positive or negative) go viral within groups, influencing our thoughts and actions. Learning about that mechanism is key to dampening negative emotional contagion and making us feel a bit less frantic.

As research has shown, we generally have little awareness of emotional contagion and its influence on our behavior. It starts when we automatically mimic other peoples facial expressions, body language, tone of voice which were hardwired to do from infancy. What happens next is also infectious: Through a variety of physiological and neurological processes, we actually feel the emotions we mimicked and then act on them.

When you have legitimate reason to worry, as we do now, youre even more likely to be influenced by everyone elses justifiable fear. Its easy to become infected by the negative emotions of coworkers, the newscaster youre watching, friends on social media, or your family. In effect, you catch their anxiety and transfer it to others, who relay it back to you, in an almost unending circuit of negative emotion.

And while feelings are more contagious in person, they can still be transmitted online and by email, phone, or any other ongoing remote interaction with other people. In fact, isolation can increase social loneliness, which can dampen our mood, making us even more susceptible to negative emotional contagion. Given this, we can all benefit from becoming more aware of how we respond to emotional contagion during this time, even if were working at home.

There is good news: Were not helpless. Understanding how emotional contagion works increases your awareness of the negative version of it and is a form of prevention in its own right, as research on the benefits of recognizing unconscious processes has shown. Your worry is reasonable, but understanding how negative emotional contagion works can help you cope. Youll be able to see why your legitimate emotions are getting amped up from interactions with others, and that knowledge gives you the power to do something about it.

For starters, cut down on how often you engage with venues where fear feeds on itself rather than on the facts social media, for example, or conversations with friends and coworkers who do more speculating and catastrophizing than sharing of evidence. Distinguish between people who are consulting sound information and those who are in a frenzy.

That doesnt mean burying your head in the sand. To the contrary, you should stay alert. But be wise about your sources. Turn to reliable health and behavioral experts: your doctor or nurse-practitioner, the CDC, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health. Do what these experts advise but dont assume you need to do more than they advise, as this could intensify negative emotions in yourself and others.

Second, just as youre trying to protect yourself and everyone else from viral contagion with exemplary health hygiene, actively work to stem negative emotional contagion by exercising good emotional hygiene. Try to stay calm using whatever methods work for you. People will mimic that emotion, too. That can lead to positive emotional contagion, and my research shows that its just as strong as the negative variety.

Exercising, volunteering and showing kindness, mindfulness meditation, and positive high-quality connections with others even if virtual can positively increase your mood. Feelings of hope have been shown to be more important than feelings of fear in resilience to poor outcomes, and purposefully expressing optimism and gratitude, with the explicit goal and understanding of feeling better, also relate to long-term well-being. We need this positive counterbalance during this difficult time, and there are free, research-based online resources to help you do these things.

There may not be an effective COVID-19 vaccine or treatment for a while. But we have the power to take action where we can, from heeding advice on social distancing to staying as calm as possible for our own benefit and the benefit of others. Reducing negative and bolstering positive emotional contagion will help us all weather this very unpredictable storm, together.

Link:
The Contagion We Can Control - Harvard Business Review

President Donald Trump and the national media have at least two things in common. They are both attempting to do their jobs amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and both are seen by the American people as unreliable sources of information.

Nevertheless, a majority of Americans (60 percent) approve of Trump's handling of the crisis. The same cannot be said of the national media. According to the most recent Gallup survey, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of the media's response to the China-caused pandemic.

Members of the national media have responded in predictable fashionby losing their minds. Afterdownplaying the seriousness of the virus in January by regurgitating Chinese propaganda and denouncing Trump's decision to ban travel from China as racist and xenophobic, the media continue to demand the trust and respect of the American peopleeven as their collective hysteria ascends to unprecedented levels. (For what it's worth, they're still promoting Chinese propaganda.)

The media's efforts to assert their credibility during the crisis have been complicated by the fact that the media don't really respect or trust the American people. As Andrea Mitchelllamentedon MSNBC: "No matter what [the president] says, people seem to be seeing him as a leader." A headline in the Washington Post was more explicit: "Trump fans believe him over the media on coronavirus. This is dangerous."

Take that, America! This is what you get for not trusting us.

The Washington Post is all over the storyWhy Trump is Bad, etc. publishing two separate (yet practically identical) opinion columns really sticking it to America: "The U.S. is still exceptionalbut now for its incompetence," by Fareed Zakaria and "Trump made us No. 1 in the spread of a deadly disease," by Jennifer Rubin.

What does the coronavirus have to do with abortion? Very little, unless you're the Post. Take, for instance, Max Boot's cerebral column on how the pandemic proves "the conservative devotion to life ends at birth." Indeed, there is no shortage of journalists who are openly accusing the president of murder.

When a Michigan hospital's "worst case" policy draft leaked to the pressfull of grim details about "comfort measures" and the prioritization of ventilatorsjournalists pounced. Former National Journal editor Ron Fournier cited the policy draft as evidence that Trump "has abandoned Michigan doctors and hospitals. He is letting people die." The hospital was forced to clarify that the draft policies were not actually in effect, but not before the journos had racked up a bunch of precious retweets.

Meanwhile, the New York Times and the Washington Post were competing to see who could publish the most insightful headline on the intersection of religion and public health.

The Times wins this round, but the national media are further than ever from winning back the American people's trust and respect. "Less trustworthy than Trump" is quite the honorific, but the media are certainly doing their best to show they deserve it.

Andrew Stiles is senior writer at the Washington Free Beacon. He can be reached at stiles@freebeacon.com.

Visit link:
UPDATE: The Journos Are Still Out of Control - Washington Free Beacon

Donald Trump addressed the press Saturday to discuss the ongoing coronavirus crisis and, for a long stretch, he was relatively calm and mature, at least by Trump standards. It was not a repeat of Friday's temper tantrum, in which he responded to NBC's Peter Alexander's reasonable question about the American public's worries by calling him a "terrible reporter." He applauded Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsome of California, two individuals he rarely showers with praise.

To start, he mostly painted a picture of our glorious 500-million mask future (definitely not our present), then let FEMA head Peter Gaynor and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci take the reins to give answers about equipment availability and testing rates. (Short answer: were working on it.) Trump congratulated himself on the bold economic initiatives hes enacting (nobodys ever done a package like this!) and applauded private businesses for stepping up. He gave two shout-outs to Hanes, reporting that they are going to start making surgical masks. (Start hoarding boxers, I guess.) He also joked about personally taking Dr. Fauci's temperature, which was a borderline human moment. Fauci's facial expressions in these press conferences have become a real-time fact-checkwhen Trump started to talk about China's culpability, Fauci's eyes darted.

Trump mostly kept a lid on the raw rage on display on Friday. But his political strategyblame China, blame the press, tout his China travel ban, blame previous administrationswas clear. He doubled down on the phrase Chinese virus, invoked "Sleepy Joe Biden," wouldn't say whether he'd talked to Pelosi. Then a reporter from OAN, the same outlet that recently asked if Chinese food is racist, set the President up, wondering what he thought of recent coverage in the Washington Post.

This was the kind of softball Trump couldn't resist taking a swing at. He called the paper a disgrace that we have to live with. When reporters spoke up he barked quiet! quiet! and lectured that fake news is something he is personally inured to, but insults the great people standing behind me.

Trump went on to chastise China for being secretive and for not letting people like Dr. Fauci know about the severity of the coronavirus threat, and then praised himself for closing off the border as early as he did.

I was called xenophobic, the President said, citing, among others Sleepy Joe Biden. I took a lot of heat. I didnt act late, I acted early.

He also put much blame for the current state of our medical crisis on previous administrations, saying we inherited an obsolete and broken system.

A better effort, without questionbut the buck still apparently stops with Barack Obama.

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Trump's Coronavirus Press Conference More In ControlBut the Blame-China, Blame-The-Blame Obama Strategy Is Clear - Vanity Fair

In Wuhan, China, people with mild COVID-19 cases were taken to large facilities and not permitted to see their families. Infected people must be isolated. That should happen everywhere, George Gao says.

By Jon CohenMar. 27, 2020 , 6:15 PM

Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Chinese scientists at the front of that countrys outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have not been particularly accessible to foreign media. Many have been overwhelmed trying to understand their epidemic and combat it, and responding to media requests, especially from journalists outside of China, has not been a top priority.

Science has tried to interview George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for 2 months. Last week he responded.

Gao oversees 2000 employeesone-fifth the staff size of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionand he remains an active researcher himself. In January, he was part of a team that did the first isolation and sequencing of severe acute respiratory syndrome 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19. He co-authored two widely read papers published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that provided some of the first detailed epidemiology and clinical features of the disease, and has published three more papers on COVID-19 in The Lancet.

His team also provided important data to a joint commission between Chinese researchers and a team of international scientists, organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), that wrote a landmark report after touring the country to understand the response to the epidemic.

First trained as a veterinarian, Gao later earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Oxford and did postdocs there and at Harvard University, specializing in immunology and virology. His research specializes in viruses that have fragile lipid membranes called envelopesa group that includes SARS-CoV-2and how they enter cells and also move between species.

Gao answered Sciences questions over several days via text, voicemails, and phone conversations. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

George Gao, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Q: What can other countries learn from the way China has approached COVID-19?

A: Social distancing is the essential strategy for the control of any infectious diseases, especially if they are respiratory infections. First, we used nonpharmaceutical strategies, because you dont have any specific inhibitors or drugs and you dont have any vaccines. Second, you have to make sure you isolate any cases. Third, close contacts should be in quarantine: We spend a lot of time trying to find all these close contacts, and to make sure they are quarantined and isolated. Fourth, suspend public gatherings. Fifth, restrict movement, which is why you have a lockdown, the cordon sanitaire in French.

Q: The lockdown in China began on 23 January in Wuhan and was expanded to neighboring cities in Hubei province. Other provinces in China had less restrictive shutdowns. How was all of this coordinated, and how important were the supervisors overseeing the efforts in neighborhoods?

A: You have to have understanding and consensus. For that you need very strong leadership, at the local and national level. You need a supervisor and coordinator working with the public very closely. Supervisors need to know who the close contacts are, who the suspected cases are. The supervisors in the community must be very alert. They are key.

Q: What mistakes are other countries making?

A: The big mistake in the U.S. and Europe, in my opinion, is that people arent wearing masks. This virus is transmitted by droplets and close contact. Droplets play a very important roleyouve got to wear a mask, because when you speak, there are always droplets coming out of your mouth. Many people have asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections. If they are wearing face masks, it can prevent droplets that carry the virus from escaping and infecting others.

Q: What about other control measures? China has made aggressive use of thermometers at the entrances to stores, buildings, and public transportation stations, for instance.

A: Yes. Anywhere you go inside in China, there are thermometers. You have to try to take peoples temperatures as often as you can to make sure that whoever has a high fever stays out.

And a really important outstanding question is how stable this virus is in the environment. Because its an enveloped virus, people think its fragile and particularly sensitive to surface temperature or humidity. But from both U.S. results and Chinese studies, it looks like its very resistant to destruction on some surfaces. It may be able to survive in many environments. We need to have science-based answers here.

Q: People who tested positive in Wuhan but only had mild disease were sent into isolation in large facilities and were not allowed to have visits from family. Is this something other countries should consider?

A: Infected people must be isolated. That should happen everywhere. You can only control COVID-19 if you can remove the source of the infection. This is why we built module hospitals and transformed stadiums into hospitals.

Q: There are many questions about the origin of the outbreak in China. Chinese researchers have reported that the earliest case dates back to 1 December 2019. What do you think of the report in the South China Morning Post that says data from the Chinese government show there were cases in November 2019, with the first one on 17 November?

A: There is no solid evidence to say we already had clusters in November. We are trying to better understand the origin.

Q: Wuhan health officials linked a large cluster of cases to the Huanan seafood market and closed it on 1 January. The assumption was that a virus had jumped to humans from an animal sold and possibly butchered at the market. But in your paper in NEJM, which included a retrospective look for cases, you reported that four of the five earliest infected people had no links to the seafood market. Do you think the seafood market was a likely place of origin, or is it a distractionan amplifying factor but not the original source?

A: Thats a very good question. You are working like a detective. From the very beginning, everybody thought the origin was the market. Now, I think the market could be the initial place, or it could be a place where the virus was amplified. So thats a scientific question. There are two possibilities.

Q: China was also criticized for not sharing the viral sequence immediately. The story about a new coronavirus came out in The Wall Street Journal on 8 January; it didnt come from Chinese government scientists. Why not?

A: That was a very good guess from The Wall Street Journal. WHO was informed about the sequence, and I think the time between the article appearing and the official sharing of the sequence was maybe a few hours. I dont think its more than a day.

Q: But a public database of viral sequences later showed that the first one was submitted by Chinese researchers on 5 January. So there were at least 3 days that you must have known that there was a new coronavirus. Its not going to change the course of the epidemic now, but to be honest, something happened about reporting the sequence publicly.

A: I dont think so. We shared the information with scientific colleagues promptly, but this involved public health and we had to wait for policymakers to announce it publicly. You dont want the public to panic, right? And no one in any country could have predicted that the virus would cause a pandemic. This is the first noninfluenza pandemic ever.

Infected people must be isolated. That should happen everywhere.

Q: It wasnt until 20 January that Chinese scientists officially said there was clear evidence of human-to-human transmission. Why do you think epidemiologists in China had so much difficulty seeing that it was occurring?

A: Detailed epidemiological data were not available yet. And we were facing a very crazy and concealed virus from the very beginning. The same is true in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, and the United States: From the very beginning scientists, everybody thought: Well, its just a virus.

Q: Spread in China has dwindled to a crawl, and the new confirmed cases are mainly people entering the country, correct?

A: Yes. At the moment, we dont have any local transmission, but the problem for China now is the imported cases. So many infected travelers are coming into China.

Q: But what will happen when China returns to normal? Do you think enough people have become infected so that herd immunity will keep the virus at bay?

A: We definitely dont have herd immunity yet. But we are waiting for more definitive results from antibody tests that can tell us how many people really have been infected.

Q: So what is the strategy now? Buying time to find effective medicines?

A: Yesour scientists are working on both vaccines and drugs.

Q: Many scientists consider remdesivir to be the most promising drug now being tested. When do you think clinical trials in China of the drug will have data?

A: In April.

Q: Have Chinese scientists developed animal models that you think are robust enough to study pathogenesis and test drugs and vaccines?

A: At the moment, we are using both monkeys and transgenic mice that have ACE2, the human receptor for the virus. The mouse model is widely used in China for drug and vaccine assessment, and I think there are at least a couple papers coming out about the monkey models soon. I can tell you that our monkey model works.

Q: What do you think of President Donald Trump referring to the new coronavirus as the China virus or the Chinese virus?

A: Its definitely not good to call it the Chinese virus. The virus belongs to the Earth. The virus is our common enemynot the enemy of any person or country.

Read more:
Not wearing masks to protect against coronavirus is a 'big mistake,' top Chinese scientist says - Science Magazine

The coronavirus outbreak still has my head spinning. As health officials keenly followed COVID-19, March began with news of the first U.S. death, a man in Washington state. Also, the CDC reported the first possible outbreak at a long-term care facility in Washington.

After a rough February closing, March 1 news reported a stock market surge of 5.1%. The rebound didnt last as economic distress surged as well.

Adjusting to the time change as we began the week of March 9, we wondered what a week with a full moon and a Friday the 13th would bring. We soon saw the coronavirus apprehension snowball.

The sports world turned upside down as various leagues cancelled, postponed or rescheduled their seasons. School systems shut down. Even some May graduations are already cancelled.

As new developments unfolded daily, observing peoples reactions became a study in human behavior. First came denial and disbelief. We lived our lives as if we werent affected, thinking China is a long way from America. Then COVID-19 hit Washington state and steadily spread.

Denial turned to skepticism: The news media is creating hysteria and people are overreacting, or This is a conspiracy with a political agenda, or This whole virus-thing is overblown.

Then skepticism turned to fear as people bombarded stores. Toilet paper turned to gold. Hand-wipes disappeared. As my March 15 birthday approached, I requested fried salmon patties for my special meal. Suddenly, I couldnt find Double Q Pink Salmon as I daily visited several groceries and discovered the canned meat aisles cleared. I struck out.

Fear turned to hysteria as shoppers acted like a blizzard was coming, packing parking lots, standing in lines waiting for stores to open, clearing out key items. It was each man for himself until stores set limits. One customer asked, Did I miss the memo that the world was going to end?

Now folks seem to be coping with this disruption, hoping for this crisis to pass soon and for life to return to normal.

This craziness gives new meaning to March madness and reminds us how uncertain life is. Fear, scarcity and an unknown future trigger a reaction like stockpiling.

Stockpiling is a means of exerting control in a situation that is out of control, said Jon Mueller, professor of psychology at North Central College in Napierville, Illinois. We want to do things to gain control, he said, and hoarding supplies offsets our sense of helplessness.

Chris Elkins, chief of staff at Denison Forum, shared hes having a hard time.

Theres no certainty about how this virus will spread or whom it will impact I have zero control of the stock market, the hoarding or peoples compliance to guidelines. I find this troubling and deeply disturbing.

Nothing in this world is certain, no matter the balance in my checking account or the investments in my retirement plan. Control is an illusion (https://www.denisonforum.org/columns/daily-article/healthcare-providers-are-experiencing-pre-traumatic-stress-disorder-fear-not-for-i-am-with-you/).

The reality is, under normal circumstances, we are NOT in control, even though we want to be. The sooner we accept that reality, the sooner we can lessen our anxiety. How can we live confidently in a world thats going nuts?

First, replace fear with faith. Faith and fear cannot coexist. Either were fearing or were demonstrating faith. Satan uses fear to erode our faith.

In times like these, where do you turn? Asaph found himself in a crisis and wrote, I cried out to God with my voice and He gave me ear. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord (Psalm 77:1, 2a). Look first to God.

Second, remember Gods presence. Deuteronomy 31:8 reads, And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed. God is with us in this crisis.

Third, look out for others. Were in this together. Dont fight over toilet paper. Share the wealth. Check on your neighbors, especially the elderly. Remember its not just about you.

Fourth, shine brightly. Believers must let the world see us living unafraid, using good sense, exercising wisdom, but living as people of faith who trust in a God who is bigger than coronavirus.

I finally found my favorite brand, Double Q Salmon, by the way, and got to enjoy my belated birthday treat. And it was delicious!

[David L. Chancey is pastor, Fayettevilles McDonough Road Baptist Church. Currently, the church family is meeting online. Join them on their Facebook page at McDonough Road Baptist Church/MRBC for Bible study at 9:45 Sundays and worship on Facebook Live at 10:55 a.m. Visit them at http://www.mcdonoughroad.org or call 770-460-5423 for more information.]

Continued here:
March Madness and the hunt for Double Q Salmon - The Citizen.com