Why Can’t Some Take Covid Seriously?

To the Editor:

Re “It’s Time to Scare People About Covid” (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Dec. 7):

I agree with Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal, who favors more coverage showing the suffering of Covid patients in order to reach those who cannot appreciate the severity of the disease.

I think we’re way past the point of not showing what doctors and nurses have to deal with every day. There needs to be an appreciation that while most can shrug off a mild case, there are children who can suffer great distress, athletes in top health who have severe symptoms and recovering patients who have long-lasting effects. Every news station should show brief firsthand accounts.

Kathryn Kleekamp
Sandwich, Mass.

To the Editor:

As a psychological scientist, I was shocked to read this article. Although “scare” campaigns (a k a fear appeals) have always been appealing to many politicians and decision makers, 60 years of psychological research have shown that this form of communication is not effective. Even worse, it can have many unwanted side effects.

Even though it seems intuitively compelling that scare campaigns lead to changes in attitude and behavior, scientific research shows convincingly that this is not the case.

Rather, it is important that people feel that the recommended measures (such as wearing masks) are effective, and that they are confident that they can stick to these measures even in difficult situations.

In fact, when people are highly scared about a health threat and believe that the measures advocated by the government are not effective, they will react defensively. Threatening information motivates people to deny a risk or to seek their salvation in conspiracy thinking.

The current Covid-19 situation requires urgent and careful action, and effective strategies must be found to curb the pandemic. Scaring people, however, should not be one of them.

Simone Dohle
Cologne, Germany
The writer is an assistant professor in the Social Cognition Center Cologne of the University of Cologne.

To the Editor:

Thank you, Dr. Rosenthal. Many people are still not grasping the seriousness of this pandemic. Call it denial, or what have you, but people are not grasping their own role in helping to minimize the spread.

People seem to resist preventive precautions as assaults on their rights.

Yes, we should be scared. Yes, wearing a mask for eight hours takes some getting used to. But I suspect that trying to breathe through Covid-infected lungs is a whole lot worse.

Marge Conner-Levin
Cherry Hill, N.J.