Why the misinformation, shame and guilt associated with coronavirus?

Abstract

Mass media information, scientific articles and reports on measures to prevent infection are confusing at the least and figures from China and Iran lack cohesion. Reports suggest that Chinese scientists knew about coronavirus in early December 2019, but were told to conceal evidence by government. It is alleged that as cover-up, government officials intentionally withheld information that hospital workers had been infected by patients, a sign of how highly contagious the virus is. Researchers were also instructed to keep quiet and even ordered to destroy samples. Similar reports are also suggesting that Iran is under-reporting cases. In Africa, employees from a hospital in Zambia have also reported having been ordered not to speak publicly. They reported witnessing people who recently returned from China with coughs not being put in quarantine. Similar denials and cover-up strategies were seen in the 90s during the AIDS crisis. The guilt and shame that was associated with HIV were thought to have been associated with the intimate nature of transmission (mostly sexual) even though others got it through other routes including mother to child transmission etc. SARS-CoV-2 has not yet been proven to be intimately transmitted though having been isolated from semen. Why then the misinformation, shame, and guilt? How can countries move from the cover-up, blame games to responsibility as the virus defies containment? Some questions remain; How can cover-ups be prevented? How can governments be held accountable for cover-ups, misinformation, etc?