With the global count of coronavirus cases topping 200,000, local and national leaders across the world are scrambling to respond.
Leaders are forced to thread the needle between conveying urgency and keeping panic at bay.
Some leaders, like Oklahoma's Republican Governor Kevin Stitt, don't quite hover in that sweet spot. Instead, he does more of a swinging pendulum approach, flipping from inappropriate amounts of chill to alarm-sounding declarations.
Phase one of Stitt's flip-flop occurred via Tweet on Saturday, March 14. The Governor posted a selfie featuring him and his two children eating at a taco joint.
As the photo shows, clearly Stitt wasn't social distancing. The place was full.
The Tweet would eventually be deleted after arousing a hefty amount of backlash, but not before making the internet rounds and offering itself up to be screen-grabbed for all eternity.
@GovStitt/Twitter
Bring on the backlash.
Though despite Stitt's casual approach to coronavirus caution on Saturday night, he still declared a State of Emergency order for the State of Oklahoma the following day.
But the pendulum swing raged on even beyond that, when on Monday a spokesman for Stitt made statements to again dial down the urgency.
Charlie Hannema, Chief of Communications for the Oklahoma Governor, lurched guidelines back in time in a statement to CNN on Monday, a day after the emergency declaration.
"[The Governor's stance] has not changed from the instructions he gave Oklahomans on Thursday: Use good common sense, follow the recommended health precautions, protect the elderly and vulnerable populations, but continue to remain calm, live your life and support local businesses."
"The Governor will continue to take his family out to dinner and to the grocery store without living in fear and encourages Oklahomans to do the same."
It is not recommended that you ignore national guidelines which say to practice social distancing by remaining home as much as possible.
Though if you are in Oklahoma and one of the few people that still to continue to go, your likelihood of meeting the state's governor just shot up.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads