>but shutting yourself off is a dangerous head-in-the-sand strategy

only if that actual makes a material difference in your life. I think the opposite is true in this case.

People read about Covid-19 all day as a coping mechanism because absorbing more information gives people the illusion they have control over the situation.

Reality is nobody has much individual control over a pandemic, life got more dangerous, and reading a thousand papers isn't going to reduce that anxiety. We live in an age where people keep telling us that 'knowing things' is an antidote to tragedy or danger in life, because they're content creators, but really it isn't.

Everyone can learn how to deal with this in 5 minutes. Wash your hands, only leave your house if necessary, yet still people may die, even some you know. No news source in the world will fix that.

I've had two anxiety attacks already when reading news in the past weeks, because the press and the goverment (I'm in Italy) love to only put the bad stuff out.

Also the news were cause of many arguments among the family. For this reason, I decided to stop for the time being to read anything at all. The quarantine is already taxing (fifth week this Monday) and I don't want to make it worse it already is.

what is it you think they're not going to hear about eventually that their family, neighbors or strangers wont inform them of?