Later that afternoon, the physician received a call from an old colleague.
“You saw what happened online?”
“Of course.”
“They’re treating the statement like a puzzle.”
“They always do.”
“Do you think the White House should release more information?”
The physician was silent.
“More information isn’t always better information,” he finally said.
“What do you mean?”
“If you release one number, people demand another.”
“If you release the second number, people want the test.”
“If you release the test, they want the doctor’s notes.”
“If you release the notes, they want the entire medical history.”
His colleague sighed.
“And if you release nothing?”
“They assume the worst.”
“Exactly.”
The physician leaned back in his chair.
“That’s the problem.”
There was no perfect amount of information.
Too little created suspicion.
Too much created another kind of speculation.
And somewhere between those two extremes was the impossible task of communicating medicine to millions of people who wanted a simple answer.
Healthy.
Unhealthy.
Fine.
Not fine.
But medicine did not always work that way.
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