The danger of too much information

THE country was briefly thrown into a tizzy on Monday when news emerged that a “new, more infectious” strain of SARS-CoV-2 — severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 — the virus that causes the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), had been discovered in some test samples analyzed by the University of the Philippines-Philippine Genome Center (PGC) in Quezon City. At about the same time as this information began circulating, similar news reports were coming from neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, some characterizing the new strain as “10 times more infectious.”

The reactions of the local media and public, as well as the somewhat garbled response of the Department of Health (DoH) to questions about the seemingly alarming discovery, are an object lesson in the potential danger of “too much information.”