I would give Spike a bit of a break. While he did freak out (and it was hard to even read his posts), he's an older gentleman who has had healthcare experience so I'm sure he had a more than rudimentary knowledge of infectious diseases and what they can potentially do, so, for lack of a better term, he probably got scared shitless.
When you factor in the Chinese's response to shutting down all of their domestic travel, to quarantining millions of their own people to the degree they did, to scientists and clinicians disappearing or dying -- I'd say that's pretty big cause for concern. Then you have Italy and Iran and what happened there.
I think it's easy to say in hindsight that we overreacted or did this or did that, but the simple truth is, is that nobody really knew what we were dealing with, especially when China wouldn't even let us or the WHO in until late February (I believe) to analyze anything.
Then you had all the users posting videos of people convulsing and patient upon patient looking like they were dying in hospital lobbies and emergency rooms like something out of a dystopian, apocalyptic movie. Jesus, this shook the world. Now that we have much more data, yes, it's time to open up and stop the fear-mongering. I know there are a lot of us who have been saying that for quite some time now. I know there were some scientists etc. who expressed their doubts and cynicism from the beginning (Vader comes to mind) here and many other places. The damage is done. Now all we can do is figure out how to get back to normal as much as possible, as soon as possible.
I'm much more irritated with Cope, who cited that he was not only a Scientist, but that he had relatives working at the NIH who were going on about reinfection rates and how long this virus could live on surfaces etc. and never answered any questions beyond that or never made any retractions or offered any apologies for his own fear-mongering. And I really like Cope. Oh well, it is what it is.
