02/27/2020

The Coronavirus Is Much Worse Than You Think

How COVID-19 is infecting our minds - not our lungs

Ask yourself the following: Would you feel confident taking an over-the-counter medication if you were 98 percent sure it would work safely? Would you dare to gamble all your savings in a one-off scheme in which you had a 98 percent chance of losing it all?

The coronavirus is a similar no-brainer. As a generic member of the human species, you have about the same odds of dying of the coronavirus as winning in the gambling scenario. These are overall rates, meaning that unless you are already in very poor health, are very old, or very young, the odds for you are much lower. Or next to nil.

Why then are so many countries implementing quarantine measures, shutting down their borders, schools and soccer games for something that is less likely to happen to anyone than drowning in a single year, or even being hit by lightning in one’s lifetime? Why is the stock-market crashing, and why are school and workplace mass emails, news headlines, social media feeds and face-to-face conversations dominated by stories about what is essentially a new strand of mild to moderate flu?

Please select this link to read the complete article from Psychology Today.