How some experts' coronavirus denialism likely fueled its worldwide spread

(Image credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

published 20 April 2020

The world wasted months before taking China's COVID-19 outbreak seriously. Some experts' optimism didn't help.

Disjointed efforts to ramp up coronavirus testing and America's overall lack of preparedness for a pandemic have gotten a lot of attention throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. But "magical thinking" and even "denial" by even "the most seasoned infectious diseases experts" has been largely overlooked, and it's a big reason measures to prevent and fight COVID-19 were slow to get underway, Stat News reports.

China was already dealing with thousands of coronavirus cases by the end of January, but even though more than 100 cases had also been reported outside the country, some experts didn't think much of it. The virus "didn't appear to be behaving as explosively outside of China as it had inside it," and so "a number of leading infectious diseases scientists mused that the outbreak would be controlled or might burn itself out," Stat writes.

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As the world knows now, that idea made no sense. A virus spreading from person to person takes time "to hit an exponential growth phase," Stat notes, and it was only a matter of time before COVID-19 did the same. Even Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told Stat on Jan. 5 that he didn't think the outbreak would become a pandemic. And while he changed his mind shortly after and warned N95-mask maker 3M to step up production, he still got flak from fellow experts accusing him of "scaring everybody." Read more at Stat News.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.