Mass hysteria is making coronavirus worse than it is

> I'm also wondering if there might be an untapped market to help people be prepared without keeping a lot of inventory themselves? Usually there is advance notice for a pandemic so you just want some assurance that someone can ship you something when it's time. This would avoid shortages by making it profitable to keep inventory.

This is an interesting idea, but you'd need to be really careful to avoid price-gouging laws (e.g. not accept any customers after the potential disaster begins). Even then the govt might still come after you if those products you keep for people cost significantly more then the local price.

Did I panic? I don’t know. I began to prepare in early February for the possibility of draconian cordon sanitaire, widespread panic, and the consequent interruption in supply after learning that in Wuhan initial warnings had been suppressed, and mass gatherings permitted during a time the virus was in the population. Because of that head start, and the dramatic R_0 of this bug, I sensed this was no ordinary outbreak.

I resumed my efforts in mid February after learning that the CDC had rejected WHO test kits, then had produced defective test kits, which, coupled with unreasonably strict test criteria, caused virtually no surveillance in the US to be done. It did not inspire confidence that mass gatherings continued to be held, and were even encouraged (e.g., San Francisco's Mayor's issuance of a statement encouraging RSA conference attendance, or the recent Bernie Sanders rally in San Jose).

Note that the failure of the US to adequately surveil, moreover its failure to respond quickly to that failure, mirrors what transpired in Wuhan. In the case of Wuhan, the national state only became aware of the problem when the local medical system was overwhelmed, and the epidemic had gone, ahem, viral.

Given the similarity between the surveillance gap in China and the US, and the failure to respond to that gap in the US, I thought prudent to continue to prepare.

I might, though, have a different perspective due to the fact that my father was head of serology and virology labs with reporting, diagnostic, and research responsibilities for animal diseases for a US state. Or, maybe a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, I don’t know. But I can, thus, recommend journalistic potboilers such as “Rats, Lice, and Men” and “Plagues and Peoples”. More seriously, David Quammen, given the background he gained in evolutionary biology from writing “Song of the Dodo”, in “Spillover” gives what’s probably the best elucidation of zoonotic pathogens.

Previous zoonotic pathogenic outbreaks have killed more than probably all wars combined. Disruption of habitat by human colonization and climate change have intersected with mass jet travel to increase the likelihood that pathogens will make it from animal reservoirs to our species.

I have parents and grandparents. I like people. Im an uncle of 3 young kids.

I'm worries and don't think it is a problem if we would reduce the global economy fora year to get rid of it.

Or that everyone on the planet should get vaccinated and should life more aware.

> “This is their new hoax,” he said, referring to the coronavirus.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/28/trump-says-the-coronavirus-i...

Straight from the horses mouth. But I'm sure he was misquoted and taken out of context...

First, the kids are fine. This virus doesn’t really seem to affect children.

Second, “worrying” accomplishes nothing. Wash your hands; avoid people when you’re sick. Avoid sick people. Have a couple weeks of groceries on hand if you think quarantine is likely. These are things you should be doing every year during flu season.

But I can’t stress this enough: there’s nothing we can be doing, rationally, where we can shave off a bit of economic growth in exchange for less virus. At this point, the virus is endemic. Quarantines make panicky people feel good, but don’t actually help. Isolation of Wuhan was a good thing to try, but it failed.

It’s time for the next step: acknowledgement that the virus is everywhere, and directly protecting vulnerable populations. This is going to happen sooner or later.