To the Editor:

I am a long-time reader of The National Herald and I appreciate your continuing coverage of the coronavirus and its spread, but I would like to say that this is not the first time that a disease has spread and caused such panic worldwide. I want to remind everyone that most of us alive today are the descendants of people who survived the Black Death which wiped out an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. And people in the Middle Ages didn’t wash their hands nearly as much as people do today.

The panic in the media seems to be exacerbated by social media as everyone shares whatever nonsense they see and then it gets posted all over. It seems like people are either freaking out or completely ignoring the advice of doctors and scientists. I saw someone this morning on the subway wiping his nose with his hands. We need to be cautious but have common sense. Wash your hands as you should be anyway and don’t touch your face. You also should never lick subway poles; that’s just wrong.

Charalambos Papavasiliou

Sacramento, CA