I think the major effect results from the fact that what people hear is from the media. Very often the media will report something in a way that will actually put it in a light that is favourable or otherwise. The problem is that people will make decisions based on what they see in the media. Sometimes the perception is worse than the actual act itself. People have a tendency to always expect the worst to happen. Especially in the time of a pandemic, people have what we call “performance anxiety” in relation to anything like that. For them, as soon as they hear something negative, they take it for granted and they expand on it. I think that's the biggest issue: that when there is a certain perception, you're not able to really set the facts straight. We see more and more now that some media are not really operating based on facts but instead mostly on perception.
On November 30th, 2020. See this statement in context.