2319! We've got a 2319! - Is Mass Hysteria More Dangerous than Disease?

Cough

^credit

I think so.

As is my custom, after dropping Rose off at school this morning I came home, made myself a cup of coffee (added the task of making an onion bed for and putting the pork shoulder into the oven, my baby loves his Pernil) then sat down for “Power Hour”. This is the time I spend just about every day checking over important things like my bank account transactions, savings account, Roth IRA, stocks and bonds, cryptos, budget, order tracking, ext. Some days towards the end of Power Hour I find myself caught up and use this time to investigate current events. There is one thing that’s on everyone’s mind right now, I don’t even need to say it, but I will…

Coronavirus, gasp.

I’m sick of hearing about it, you’re sick of hearing about it. The media has latched onto it and turned into a swarm of killer bees, relentlessly stinging until the only thing we can do is succumb to the hysteria. Except, no. I’m not a mass hysteria kind of gal. I’m a turn off Fox news and turn towards scientist’s kind of gal. So, when I came across a link to Joe Rogan speaking with Michael Osterholm (a credentialed infectious disease expert), it seemed like a good path for me to take.

Now, I’m seeing a wide range that seem to be primarily gathering into “fucking panic” and “psh it’s nothing”. From what I’ve learned about Coronavirus, these are both the wrong stances to hold.

Through the interview they discus risk factors, that risk factors are going to be different in different parts of the world due to both genetic and cultural norms. A lot of old men in China are dying because a lot of old men in China have the risk factors of being old and being smokers. A lot of people in America have combined risk factors of age and obesity. It’s so variable that those of us that aren’t experts shouldn’t assume the fatal risk factors in our areas. We may not be old men smokers, but that doesn’t mean we have nothing to worry about. I’m an otherwise healthy 30-year-old, but I’ve been smoking for 16 years with asthma. I’m a little worried.

They discus precautionary measures and transmission. I’m not entirely sure how
Breathing contaminated air gets you sick, face masks probably won’t help because you don’t even know how to use them.
turns into
Everybody rush to Walmart, shove yourself in like sardines to buy all of the face masks, toilet paper.
So… to prevent this airborne disease people are… going directly against recommendations by visiting a high traffic area to try to prevent the disease? What?

The biggest break we seem to have with this virus is that children are largely non symptomatic. Very few children are getting sick, thank whatever you believe in for that. Unfortunately, they aren’t exactly immune, they pick up the virus and carry it around like little biological terrorists. Of course, some of them do become symptomatic but their role in this seems to be more in spreading it to their families.

So, what do we do? I’ve received emails, Class Dojo messages, flyers sent home, all sorts of modes of communication from the Buffalo City School District outlining plans. They clearly state they will close schools to prevent the spread of the virus if needed. Yeah, I don’t get it. Point that Michael Osterholm made in the interview, about one fourth of our population in the United States doesn’t have any kind of sick leave. No school, no childcare. Send them to daycare? Well if they can’t go to school what would make going to daycare any different? Daycares will be shut down too. So by shutting down schools in a certain area you’re effectively putting a quarter of the population out of work.

If you don’t feel well stay home I’m currently on unemployment and we rely largely on MrV’s income, if he starts getting a tight chest and has to say home for a week or two, we’re fucked. Big fucked. So many of us are in this kind of position. So if Coronavirus sweeps Buffalo, everything shuts down, the economy in our city crashes, now everyone is sick and can’t afford their rent… Now apply this to the entire world.

This is where my concerns come into play. It’s very plausible that Coronavirus can crash the worlds economical structure, killing more people indirectly than with the virus. Do you have any idea how much of the world’s drugs come from China? From over the counter to ‘you need this right now or your dead’?
A fucking lot, guys.

To me, the ramifications of mass hysteria is scarier on a global scale than Coronavirus is on a personal scale.

The best we can do right now, is what we should be doing to maintain a healthy lifestyle in general. Eat well, drink lots of water, daily vitamins, keep your body fit and active, get enough sleep, wash your damned hands. Oh, and don’t crowd into stores in a panic frenzy.

^{(What’s truly terrifying to me is Chronic Wasting Disease, yep, the Zombie deer disease, it could mutate to spread to humans. My terror lives there.)}

All in all, I feel like Neil DeGrasse Tyson has said it best. “The experiment is... will people listen to scientists?”
13:21-17:38

^{I love Neil Degrasse Tyson, might do a whole post on him another day.}

I’m going to listen to scientists. I’m not going to panic about how to prevent it, I’m going to focus on softening the blow when it comes. I’m going to keep going to the gym (mine’s not very busy), drink more water, take my vitamins, all the normal stuff, and encourage my child to do the same. I’m also going to be ordering my groceries online for the next few months because I’d rather not be stuck in the cesspool that is big grocery. Based on my research into the subject I’d advise everyone the same, batten down the hatch that is your body, avoid large groups of people if you can, live your life.

Later in the day update: They just shut down all of the colleges in our area (with no confirmed cases), restricted to online learning only.

Mass hysteria 1, Buffalo 0.