Another virtue that could help in a time of coronavirus: Honesty.
"I always feel the optimal messaging is honesty about what we know and what we do not know," said Sandro Galea, dean of the Boston University School of Public Health.
It is simply honest to say that that the new coronavirus can be expected to spread in the United States, he said. "It is also honest," he added, "to say that there are no particular novel measures that can be taken beyond the measures that we take to avoid the spread of other flu-like illnesses, and that institutions and localities need to be responsive and adaptive."