Anyone concerned about what the impact of fake news and tribal-determined reporting in the media is doing to the level of intelligent debate should remember this person’s name at a time when the Omicron curveball could or could not rattle the world economy, while potentially hurting millions of people around the world.

The name is Dr Leong Hoe Nam — a Singapore doctor interviewed on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia.”

Dr Leong’s take on Omicron made it easy for the publication's headline-maker to come up with this: “Omicron will likely ‘dominate and overwhelm’ the world in 3-6 months, doctor says…”

This means Dr Leong one day could be called an insightful genius or a nincompoop publicity seeker. Personally, I have nothing against the good doctor but I hope the latter tag ends up being the one in three months’ time.

Why? Well, if he’s wrong then the threat of the variant of the Coronavirus would’ve been overstated, the current vaccines would’ve given us at least viable protection and as a global population, we would’ve proven that we have learnt to live with this damn virus.

All of this then has positive economic implications, which aside from keeping as many people as possible alive and healthy, the next really important issue is keeping everyone employed and materially comfortable. If Omicron turns out to be as bad as Dr Leong is predicting, a lot of people and economic opportunities will be lost and as a committed optimist, with realistic inclinations, I just pray the Singaporean medico has got this big call wrong.

The economic implications won’t just mean more lockdowns, restrictions, unemployment, bankruptcies and ballooning budget deficits and debt on already ballooned deficits and debts, but they could create a financial market issue with interest rates already ridiculously low for good economic reasons.

This big experiment of worldwide lockdowns to beat the virus followed by huge government spending and historically low interest rates, was engineered to create spectacular economic growth over 2021, 2022, 2023 and beyond.

Great growth means lots of jobs, profit and investment income that then gets taxed, which helps pay down government debts and then allows interest rates to float up in booming economies, so as to eventually create more normal economies.

Sure the debt was always going to be around for a long time but that’s the price of not going through another 1930s style Great Depression, where unemployment goes to 20% or even worse.

The bottom line is 2021s great growth was hurt by the Delta strain, which explains why our September quarter growth was negative 1.9% but luckily we still grew at 3.9% over the year. This is good growth but is not the slam-dunk numbers we want and that’s why Dr Leong and his pessimism around Omicron just has to be wrong.

Of course, that’s me the economist, investor, employer and financial advisor talking and so I’m hoping other medicos and drug company pioneers end up being more insightful than Dr L.

The CNBC reporter couldn’t help herself and played up the negative story first before eventually telling us that others have an alternative view on the virus. Historically my media colleagues have been programmed to give priority to the negative take over an optimistic view, and nothing will change that, because apparently, we rate negative news higher than positive stuff.

Skillpath.com tells us this: “The human brain has a natural tendency to give weight to (and remember) negative experiences or interactions more than positive ones—they stand out more. Psychologists refer to this as negativity bias.”

Psychologist and author Rick Hanson, says: “Our brains are wired to scout for the bad stuff and fixate on the threat.”

Verywellminded.com reinforces this idea about the human brain as "negative information causes a surge in activity in a critical information processing area of the brain, our behaviours and attitudes tend to be shaped more powerfully by bad news, experiences, and information.”

I can live with that reality about how our brains are wired but as an economist, I really do like to look at the pros and cons of economic forecasts and try to work out what might happen in all likelihood.

It helps with investing and it’s why I often recommend to my subscribers, readers, listeners and viewers that we should buy the dip when stock markets get too negative and sell-off. We have a tendency to be too short-term in nearly everything we do despite wisdom showing us that thinking and acting for the long-term pays better dividends.

That's why I worry about the impact of Dr L plus negative media headlines and its impact on confidence, spending, investment growth and our economic future.  

This is what CNBC reported: “While vaccines against the strain can be developed quickly, they need to be tested over three to six months to prove that they can provide immunity against the variant, Dr. Leong Hoe Nam of Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital said Wednesday.

“But frankly, omicron will dominate and overwhelm the whole world in three to six months.”

These numbers stack up if the virus is really worse than the South African scientists suggested, who said it is more transmissible but might not be as threatening.

Recognising the worst case scenario, US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said the following on NBC’s Meet the Press: “The profile of the mutations strongly suggest that it’s going to have an advantage in transmissibility and that it might evade immune protection that you would get."

But there are opposing views that I think need to get more air time and one comes from Dr Syra Madad, a fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

“Our bodies generate a whole host of different antibodies in response to vaccines,” she said on CNBC’s Capital Connection. “I do think that our current vaccines will hold up to a certain extent, with this new variant.”

She pointed out that the vaccines were able to provide protection against the Delta strain.

“It may reduce vaccine effectiveness by a couple of notches, but that is yet to be seen,” she said. “Current vaccines, along with boosters should still provide a good level of protection.”

And here’s what I like to see as a headline: 'Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said he’s pretty confident the company’s new COVID-19 treatment pill will be effective against the omicron coronavirus variant.'

“I’m very very confident that this drug works for all known mutations, including the omicron one,” Bourla said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “But we are working on other drugs for the eventual case that maybe a resistance is developed.”

Call me an economist and someone who likes the idea of capitalism providing jobs, profits, wealth and success, along with materialism-created happiness but I reckon we should be optimistic and confident that we will prevail against this virus until there is solid evidence to the contrary.

At the worst, objective analysis suggests that it’s at least 50:50 either way and so I can’t see why we in the media always have to play to the sully wiring of our brains that place negativity ahead of positivity.

I’d argue it this inclination of our poorly-wired brains that explains why too many people aren’t as successful as they’d like to be, why they don’t invest competently to grow serious wealth and why life can sometimes seem so underwhelming.

In the TV series, The Great, about Catherine the Great of Russia, Voltaire makes an appearance and ridicules the optimists of his world. However, this was a world of serfdom, low education, serious discrimination against women and people of colour, shockingly low medical standards, death and destruction.

There has been significant social progress since then and even Voltaire, if the TV show can be relied upon, did say in a speech to Russian nobles, that he hoped science could find a cure for syphilis, which seemed to be a personal cry for relief!