Uncertainty

Closing remarks from Chris Cuomo, Cuomo Prime Time 03/18/2020

Coronavirus, living up to its name, Corona, Greek, crown. It's ruling everything, everyone.

Let's be honest. To this point, isn't the hardest part not knowing? Uncertainty is as contagious as the virus, and certainly sickening, in and of itself.

We keep hearing about people being sick, but they can't get tested. They keep saying the tests are coming, and we're going to get caught up on the data, but when? Uncertain. And uncertainty mixed with shortage of trust in government, toxic.

The numbers, they keep jumping. But we know they're not accurate because they're not testing. We thought the real lethality risk was this thing about how many elderly this disease would take from us, this virus, how many of the compromised.

But now it is uncertain how many of us may be compromised.

The young and strong were worrying about being ignored in all this online, but out and about ignoring the very warnings that they wanted. Now, it turns out they're getting sick too, some, badly.

The one bright spot was this virus seemed to spare the young, the toddlers, teens. Now, uncertain. How many? How long? Uncertain. How long will this last? It keeps changing in wild ways.

Trump went from "Not going to happen" to "One and done" to "15 cases and case closed" to "It will magically disappear" to "We got this" to "15 days" to "August" and now, an 18-month contingency plan.

The scariest part, while we know he was BSing in the beginning, now his ignorance is actually justified. It is uncertain. They don't know. Nobody knows. You can't know.

And look, I know I'm on TV, but I'm living it just like you, in almost all the same ways, especially if you're not sick, God forbid. My family is 100 miles away. My mom is living with us.

I'm working here. Have I been exposed? Maybe. My cough, and my icky feeling, is it allergies, is it a cold, should I be tested? Uncertain. Probably not. If I go home, am I going to risk my kids? Am I going to risk my mother? Do I have to stay away? For how long? All uncertain.

Now here is what is not uncertain. And I don't want to have to tell you this, but you have to hear it. This is just starting. And we know that playing uncertainty the wrong way is dangerous. How do we know?

Four out of five people who get this virus get it from someone who didn't know they had it. And in that fact is the answer to what seems to be this vexing question. How do you deal with uncertainty because we're seeing two options play out, under-prepare or over-prepare.

Under-prepare is what you see out all too much, flouting self-isolation, writing it off as fake news. Ask Italy and a dozen other countries how fake this is. That is stupid and selfish, to me.

In the face of the unknown, the only choice is to do everything we can to prepare. Be certain about that.

No matter how onerous, costly to government, frustrating, we must encourage friends and families, online and in person, to do the same. We must demand government do the same. Be certain about this.

If you do not prepare for the worst, hoping for the best is certainly asking for the hardest times to come.

God bless you. Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay together.