Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak caused momentary panic on Twitter when he tweeted his wife had a 'bad cough' after they returned from China
- Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak tweeted that his wife was getting checked out for a "bad cough" after the couple had returned from a trip to China, sparking a mild panic on Twitter.
- He speculated that he and his wife were "patient zero" for coronavirus in the US.
- His wife was in fact diagnosed with a sinus infection, but the episode highlighted the heightened fear and anxiety that the coronavirus outbreak has caused.
- Wozniak's comments also came just after the coronavirus had killed six people in the United States and infected nearly 100.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak tweeted on Monday that his wife was getting checked out for a "bad cough" after the couple had returned from a trip to China.
He added that they both may have been "patient zero" for coronavirus in the United States, implying they might be the first to bring the virus to America.
His wife in fact ended up being diagnosed with a sinus infection, according to USA Today, but the comments were enough to cause a mild panic on social media.
"Checking out Janet's bad cough," Wozniak wrote. "Started Jan. 4. We had just returned from China and may have both been patient zero in the U.S."
Wozniak's comments came just after the coronavirus had killed six people in the United States and infected nearly 100. Globally, the coronavirus has killed more than 3,000 people and has spread to at least 70 other countries. More than 90,000 have been infected worldwide.
The World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus to be an international public health emergency. The outbreak has disrupted global travel as airlines are restricting flights, and fears over the virus prompted stocks to plummet the most since the financial crisis in 2008.
Wozniak and his wife returned from Hong Kong on January 4 with a cough and sore throat, he said via email to Business Insider.
"There were no tests," he wrote. "If we returned now, we'd be tested or quarantined for sure."
Although his wife was diagnosed with a sinus infection and Wozniak said he believes they had a flu rather than the coronavirus-induced COVID-19 illness, he says there's no way to rule it out for sure since they haven't been tested. Wozniak also told USA Today that he contacted the Centers for Disease Control, which advised that the couple wash their hands.
"I think that we probably had something other than COVID-19 but there is no way to [rule] it out, and the timing and location were right," Wozniak said over email to Business Insider. "If it's ever possible for us (past the symptoms) in this country to get tested, we will."
Wozniak's tweet resulted in a deluge of replies expressing a mix of surprise and concern. Several wondered why the couple had waited so long to look into the illness, others urged Wozniak and his wife to stay home until she feels better, and some wished her a speedy recovery.
The episode highlights the heightened anxiety that an outbreak such as the coronavirus can cause, particularly because it's incredibly contagious and hard to predict.
"There's the spread of infectious disease, then there's the spread of panic," Amira Roess, a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University previously told Business Insider. "They have very different mechanisms."
The symptoms that Wozniak's wife experienced also do not seem consistent with those of COVID-19. Wozniak said that his wife was coughing up blood at one point, which USA Today first reported. The COVID-19 symptoms listed on the Centers for Disease Control's website include fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
But heightened levels of fear and anxiety stemming from an outbreak like the coronavirus can also make it difficult to process the situation rationally, as Shahram Heshmat, an associate professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, Springfield who specializes in the health economics of addiction and obesity, wrote in Psychology Today last month. That's partially because people typically use a mix of cognitive skills - i.e. weighing the actual evidence - and emotional appraisals like intuition to assess a threat.
"As a result of these differences, people often experience a discrepancy between emotional reaction to, and logical evaluations, of a threat," Heshmat wrote.
The best ways to manage fear and anxiety about a novel threat like the coronavirus is to ensure you're getting accurate information from reputable news sources and government agencies, as well as making sure you're prepared for any routine changes that may come from the outbreak such as being quarantined from work, as TIME notes.
"It's reassuring to the extent that you've done what you can do," Catherine Belling, associate professor of medical education at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, said to TIME. "That diminishes anxiety as well."
