The issue is the enormous amount of misinformation that the President and some of the Governors and Mayors are stating during their public addresses. For example, here in New York, Governor Cuomo stated that he was bringing in the National Guard and that there will be a "lockdown" in New Rochelle where a large cluster of Coronavirus infections have been diagnosed. Of course, the residents immediately (and reasonably) thought that "lockdown" would mean something similar to what was happening to Italy where the residents are only allowed to go to the pharmacy and supermarket. That is not the case. Only the schools were closed, otherwise it was business as usual. The highways and streets were still open and people could travel freely as normally. But due to the miscommunication, people here in New York starting hoarding food, bottled water and other necessities like toilet paper. Here in New York, we are seeing a shortage of not only toilet paper, but bottled water, canned goods and paper towels. Another example is when the President stated in his public address two nights ago that travel to the United States from Europe, except for the U.K., would be suspended for 30 days. What the President failed to mention was that the travel ban did not apply to American citizens, nationals, etc. So there were Americans in Europe frantically buying airline tickets, spending as much as $20,000.00 to get on the earliest flight back to their home in the United States for fear of being unable to return home in time. Our leaders need to be clear, concise and precise in their public addresses. These types of miscommunications leads to the hysteria we are seeing today.
