Just a Big Game of Telephone

We all are familiar with the elementary game of telephone. You sit in a circle and pass whatever phrase you hear to the person next to you. The phrase almost never ended up as it started. For some people, information about the coronavirus feels like just a big game of telephone.

I recall back in January of this year hearing about the virus that was sweeping airports and cities in China. I remember being told it was nothing to worry about. I remember in February asking teachers if they thought it would impact our school year, the answer again was no, most likely not. I remember going on spring break and never returning to school for the rest of the semester. I remember the president telling us that there was nothing to worry about. I also remember the CDC saying the opposite.

Just like the kids in the telephone circle who would purposefully mess up the phrase, there are people in this country who purposefully spread false information about the virus. The problem is, the false information being spread isn’t just a made-up phrase in a game of telephone, it’s misinformation that is killing people.

My friend’s grandpa would constantly talk about how the coronavirus was something that was made up by the government to control people. He went as far as hugging my cousin and saying, “I’ll show you that there is nothing to worry about with this virus”. A month later he got COVID and died in 5 days. His death might have been preventable if he had listened to the recommendations from the CDC, but because he chose to listen to the false information spread by people on Facebook and other media, he lost his life.

I fear that people will continue to choose to listen to false information because it fits with what they want to do, and more lives will be lost because of it.