I don’t believe that reporting about the pandemic was overblown at the time that the pandemic was a public health crisis, actually I believe it was underreported, quite significantly.

However, I believe that the combination of the huge uncertainty, people desperately trying to keep up to date, people being off work or working from home, the huge amount of conversation around COVID news stories, etc. that the news websites got an unprecedented amount of traffic, clicks and revenue, and since that has tapered off, they’re basically like an addict desperate for a fix. They’ll present any minor COVID news, no matter how inconsequential, as a far bigger issue than it really is.

I don’t really believe that COVID will make a resurgence, but if it does, I’ll be there encouraging people to wear a mask. But I’m not gonna freak out and declare a state of emergency because a researcher tweeted some toilet thought.