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There is a lot I can do for my family and friends about helping them not be _irrationally_ afraid. Eliminating irrational fear is valuable. Spreading undue pan
by RobertRoberts 7y ago
There is a lot I can do for my family and friends about helping them not be _irrationally_ afraid.
Eliminating irrational fear is valuable. Spreading undue panic is reprehensible.
What are the numbers? What is the risk equation? If we avoid these, then we are not speaking from knowledge but simply guessing and editorializing. Which tends towards panic, not rationality.
- jacquesm 7y agoEliminating irrational fear is very valuable. But there is also something to be said for being rationally afraid: to try to put boundaries on how scary this thing really is and what the likely impact will be. Undue panic is 'we are all going to die, the end is neigh' kind of bs. But a measured response could easily be that it would be better to reduce travel if you do not really have to, avoid concentrations of people and so on. The numbers that we know so far are impressive enough that I believe those measures are warranted. 1-2% mortality, aerosolized infection confirmed, tactile infection confirmed, reasonably long incubation time, tests appear unreliable, virus now present in 25+ countries, with serious outbreaks in several of those. This is no longer in 'common flu' territory, nor is it in 'black plague' territory. Let's hope it stays that way and can be pushed back into the bottle again or that a vaccine is developed fast enough and produced in quantity enough that the bulk effects can be reduced.