Shhh! Don’t tell anyone! This is a common saying heard amongst a lot of people, especially in scholastic environments. However, it seems this secretive behavior never seems to go away, even in professional cases. Many may feel it is to protect people, but in reality, it only leads to more problems in the long run. 

Many government officials have frequently been reported to keep secrets from the public about the coronavirus. This is first seen in China, when the outbreak supposedly started in a wet market in Wuhan. When people got sick, the government was denying it, and there are many reports of evidence being destroyed. This caused it to spread even further, as people did not know to isolate themselves. The goal of not telling anyone was to help sustain their economy and reduce fear until a more appropriate time. This led to instances of doctors and scientists “dying” or “mysteriously disappearing,” as many have concluded (nypost).  

No part of the world was treated lightly with this information being kept from them. Economies are being hit financially, and other countries internationally are also seeing severe declines in stocks as well with the lack of information. Many people are losing their jobs, and if action is not taken soon, it could continue to spiral into a case similar to, if not worse than, the Great Depression. In fact, according to BBC news, “a UN study said 81% of the world’s workforce of 3.3 billion people had had their place of work fully or partly closed because of the outbreak.” Each week more and more people are applying for unemployment benefits as well, and some warn that billions will be in financial devastation.

Furthermore, many people have lost family members, even those living locally. This could have been avoided if government officials were more strict about ordering schools to shut down sooner, and if the public had more information that would only benefit them. On a positive note, Governor Newsom was one of the first governors in our country to lock down the whole state, and many others followed suit immediately after. 

Weeks later, even WHO (World Health Organization) is rumored to be covering up for China as well. This is why Donald Trump is considering no longer funding them. He had even mentioned in mid-March that “he’d wished they’d told us earlier about the coronavirus”(CNN Politics). Katie F (9) agrees with this, saying “I don’t think enough information was being said because when the schools closed, barely anybody took the situation seriously, causing people to not be as prepared. This has resulted in grocery stores being crowded and understocked.”

With all this chaos going on in the world, many are becoming skeptical about the statistics depicting the amount of cases and deaths from the virus. They have a right to do so, since it’s clearly been shown that not everything being shown to the public is accurate. So the next time someone tries keeping a secret, think of how this will impact others.