One More Reason to Avoid the News

Not sure if you’ve been seeing the newest stories, but apparently parts of America have something called “Murder Hornets” to worry about. A couple of stories about them showed up on my Facebook feed yesterday, and the pictures of the hornets look like they came out of a science fiction movie. Beyond the bug itself, the name “Murder Hornets” sounds like a title that was given with the sole purpose of stirring up fear in the casual reader. And my suspicion is, that’s not too far from the truth.

Now, I’m not an environmentalist by any means, but I would suspect that it’s incredibly unlikely that Hoosiers would need to worry about Murder Hornets coming our way. I could be wrong, but it’s so unlikely that there is zero chance that I’ll be losing sleep over the idea of them. But for individuals glued to news outlets, there’s a strong chance of putting emotional weight into a story that has zero impact on their lives.

Whether it’s Murder Hornets, global pandemics, or any other health-related story, I strongly encourage you to stick to information that is relevant and impacts you and your loved ones. Even more, I’ve found myself trying seeking out information from sources that don’t profit off of fear. With the majority of news outlets, if it bleeds it leads.

Now, you better believe that I’ll be keeping an eye on the coronavirus case numbers, spikes, and how state and local government officials respond as we re-open. But there’s no way in the world I’m going to be looking at Murder Hornet stories, the rising of the global coronavirus case numbers, or any international policies that develop as a result. Not only are those stories outside of our control, they have a zero or teeny tiny impact on our day-to-day lives.

- Dr. Scott Minton