Two bits on COVID-19

If you're like me a few days ago, and I think many people still are, then you're probably quite tired of all the COVID-19 coverage. Why is this the top news story every night while more deadly illnesses continue to be also-rans? I'm starting to take it more seriously, but you maybe aren't, so I'll keep it brief.

First, there is a broad strong section of people who I think are giving this an appropriate level of concern. In this bucket I would throw most of the experts I've heard interviewed and most of the policy makers and politicians in the hot-bed countries, with the obvious orange exception and the possible exception of Iran, of which I've heard much less.

As usual, though, the rational, middle section isn't 1% of my Facebook feed, so I'm a little peeved.

First, the easy one. If you're proudly posting pictures of you stockpiling toilet paper on Facebook, you have diminished yourself in my eyes to an impressive extent. The same goes for any meme suggesting you're stockpiling ammo, obviously. You are easily the biggest threat posed by this disease. There's a reason people are preaching "don't panic" so hard that I think they actually downplay the risks. Panic is the only way this turns from a few thousand deaths in Canada and some form of recession to an all out shit-storm.

But you CAN take it too far the other way. If I have to see one more post about how we can't care about this because it has fewer deaths than the flu, I'm going to be sick (I'm very funny). Forgetting the problem that you're wrong, given it seems at a minimum 6 times as deadly. There are still plenty of reasons to care about this. Flattening the curve, dealing with the social issues. Besides, are we really happy to be introducing this to the world even if it were just a new flu. That means twice the infections, twice the death. Comparisons to SARS are a fantasy now. A delicious fantasy, given SARS has had no known infections since 2004.

Anyway, you're probably in the happy serious middle camp if you're reading this, right? So I'm going on too long. The important thing, to quote the guide (42 this weekend), Don't Panic.