2. The Coronavirus Outbreak

With news breaking that a strain of the coronavirus had been detected in Wuhan, China, the media has been focused on covering what has become a deadly pandemic in the world’s most populous country.

Reports have come out that the coronavirus likely escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which works with deadly viruses and has been linked by some to a covert biological weapons program, anxiety over the outcome of this dangerous situation has been consuming.

Late yesterday, the United States Health and Human Services Department declared the coronavirus a public health emergency. As a result, individuals who have recently been in the Hubei province of China will be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

In addition, the United States government has been restricting travel to China, as reports have begun to surface that the impact of the virus is actually much worse than initially reported.

With people concerned with the idea that this could become a global health crisis and full-blown global pandemic, attention has been diverted away from the Super Bowl and towards the potential impacts of the coronavirus.