For months, I had referred to articles hyping the dangers of Covid as “panic porn” (and people writing them as members of “Team Apocalypse”). The Kawasaki articles were worse, frightening parents based on the thinnest possible science. I called them “kiddie panic porn,” an ugly name for an ugly media game. Yet the stories also hinted at the media’s desperation to find bad news as the epidemic waned. Thus when the Floyd protests exploded I imagined the media would move away from Covid doomsaying. I was wrong.
