This was originally going to be a reply to Fruffy's comment. I don't see mass hysteria, but I do see growing concern. The last several decades of child-rearin

This was originally going to be a reply to Fruffy's comment. I don't see mass hysteria, but I do see growing concern. The last several decades of child-rearing in the US have been marked by an increased focus upon stress rduction, conflict mitigation, and obstacle-clearing for the purposes of opening up a larger swath of opportunities for our children in their futures. Especially among the upper and middle-classes, I believe that this has resulted in a larger portion of the population lacking the fundamental coping mechanisms to respond rationally and proportionally to perceived threats. Combined with a lack of actual experience dealing with pandemics in our cultural memory, lower social capital in our immediate communities preventing stronger bonds of mutual reassurance/support, and our ability to communicate our concerns with a broad likeminded audience over the internet, and I don't wonder that an unreasonably high number of young individuals panicking over the COVID outbreak. I don't know that this is the case in Europe, as it is outside my direct experience. But Europeans seem to have a greater sense of institutional trust than we do here stateside. We seem to be in a constant state of cultural hyperventilation right now. Of all the wolves we've worried about wandering the earth, COVID's the one that's actually coming for us, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, or creed, and it's also the one we lack the tools to effectively combat at scale. Even though the article raises a number of reasons why the outbreak may not be as bad as we fear, if someone's truly concerned that they're in danger of passing from it, reach out to them and ask how you can help. Especially among the lower-classes, self-quarantine isn't a realistic option, and constructing a network of mutual support for the event that it does become as bad as our most panicked commentators say it might be is a good way to keep everyone's emotional and physical struggles down while we weather the storm, if and when it comes.