I guess, though, that that would also give us the right to chide him (he's chiding US, after all) for over-reacting, too, shouldn't it?

Humor is just the way that we come to grips with a world where monsters like these diseases stalk us all. If we can't laugh at them (remember, at least here, we are laughing at the diseases, not the afflicted), we should be cowering in terror...