EDITORIAL | What we don't know can hurt us

Instead of telling us that 77 K-State football players have had the virus, they’ll just say “sports team.” Instead of telling us that five people have died — died — at Leonardville Nursing Home, they’ll just say “long-term-care facility.” Forty-two people got sick from a single wedding in the county Oct. 17, but if that happened now, we wouldn’t know anything about the date or type of event.

Which daycare? Which restaurant? There’s a new outbreak this week at a school. We don’t know which one.

Between Monday and Wednesday, cases in the “medical” category nearly doubled, from 28 to 50. But why bother to tell us where?

The lack of clarity is almost certain to lead to speculation, rumor and paranoia.

The PR flak for the department said the idea is to get people to assume they could come into contact with the virus anywhere. And they think it may encourage people to be more forthcoming about their contacts.

Well, we think this “less information” policy is a great idea.

Perhaps the city shouldn’t report how much money it’s spending on a new parking garage. People might not like how their tax dollars are being used, and they might get upset! We probably shouldn’t tell them which commissioner said what at the meetings, either, or they might decide not to vote for some of them.

The same goes for the county commissions, the Legislature, Congress. We’re sure every elected official can be trusted to spend our money the right way with zero oversight.

And we probably shouldn’t report sports scores. It could make the losing teams feel bad. Coaches might be more willing to talk to us if they know we won’t say what mistakes their team made in a game.

Maybe we should stop reporting that people have died. It might make readers sad or uncomfortable.

No need for arrests, either. People don’t need to know where crime is happening and who is committing it! They need to assume they could come into contact with criminals anywhere.

For that matter, we shouldn’t report what happens in court proceedings, because people tend to lie. They might tell the truth if they don’t think their testimony will end up in the news.

Same goes for anything that would warn people of danger or alert them to potential problems: vehicle recalls, identity thieves, food service violations, storm systems, disease outbreaks.

If everyone knew about them, they might use that information to make decisions for themselves. Don’t worry; government officials will tell every person who actually needs to know. It’s better that way.