Coronavirus Would Be Worse Without the Web
We’re safer with digital technology than without it.
Telemedicine makes treating patients easier.
Photographer: AFP/Getty Images
For all the bashing directed at technology nowadays, it is noteworthy that so far the internet has put on an impressive performance when it comes to the coronavirus.
Most of all, the internet has aided and enforced transparency. In early December, it seems, local governments in China sought to cover up evidence of a possible spreading pandemic. But once the word got out on the internet, the cover-up stopped almost immediately. The central government stepped in aggressively to ensure a quarantine and many other active countermeasures. Whether or not those were the right policy responses, the elimination of the cover-up was a necessary step in limiting the spread of the coronavirus.