Nothing to Fear But...

Even if you're an individual with no health risks and you catch the virus, there are things to worry about: just plain feeling awful is possible even if you're not high-risk. You might have to miss work. You run a risk of long COVID. And then there's the possibility you could transmit the virus to others at risk of severe COVID and death from the virus.
Coronavirus FAQ: 'Emergency' over! Do we unmask and grin? Or adjust our worries?

All true enough. But none of this, other than "long COVID," is unique to a SARS-CoV-2 infection. But this is National Public Radio, and NPR's audience, being left of center in the United States, is primed to see constant vigilance concerning SARS-CoV-2 as a marker of conscientiousness.

The thing that I've found strange for the past three years is the idea that many people seem to have that serious respiratory viruses simply didn't exist before SARS-CoV-2 came along, despite the earlier panics over emergent diseases like, well SARS. You know, the illness caused by SARS-CoV-1. Like the various strains of SARS, any number of other illnesses spread pretty quickly in crowded conditions, like cities. So It's not clear to me why precautions like wearing a mask in public or carrying hand sanitizer wherever one goes aren't simply held out as useful things a person can do if they are worried about illnesses in general. After all, there's nothing unique about SARS-CoV-2 that renders it uncommonly susceptible to vaccines, for instance. After all, there are photos of people wearing face masks during the influenza pandemic of 1918. And, as so many people have been quick to note, SARS and influenza are not the same.

As has been made clear by Fox News, media outlets tend to be beholden to their audiences. And, as a publicly-funded entity, NPR is perhaps more beholden to it's audience than most. But even noting that, it seems mired in a need to always present the 2019 coronavirus as a singular threat, unmatched by any other possible pathogen, rather than simply one of any number of virii and/or bacteria that have potentially serious health consequences attached to them. And I'm not sure that I see the need. If someone wants to go all out to avoid catching the common cold, more power to them. Being sick is a drag, even when it's not particularly serious. Constantly hyping up the potential complications of a single illness in the name of justifying precautions seems like little more than a recipe for anxiety. But maybe that's what the audience tunes in for.