Coronavirus Fears

By: Joe Mauricio

 

Fear is rapidly spreading along with the news of the coronavirus making its way to Illinois, (as of deadline, it’s already here) likely due to the misconceptions that are circulating about respiratory illness.

Don’t panic. I think that the biggest misconception is the FEAR, the degree of fear people seem to have, right? So, the best treatment for fear is facts. The fear of the unknown, and there’s actually a lot more known than people realize.

The media rattles off an alarming increase in the numbers of people who have contracted and died from coronavirus. The press offers macabre minute-by-minute updates of the ever-increasing casualties. The U.S. stock market dropped thousands of points, pictures of stores that have been picked clean, mostly out of toilet papers, all stoked fears. It’s easy to succumb to the fear of the crowd when everywhere you turn there is negative news. There will be uncertainty and fear with brief pockets of hope.

The coronavirus will signal the end of China’s dominance as the manufacturing epicenter of the world.

How could U.S./foreign companies keep employees in China with all we know now? Any company executives who cares about their employees’ safety, human rights issues, and the environment will elect to pull out of China, and relocate their business back to U.S. or move to some other countries.

This might be wishful thinking, but distastes bring us together. Perhaps this sad situation will unite us with a common goal of defeating this outbreak, preparing for a smarter approach towards international trade and ensuring a better system to help with our medical care and health issues.

Sometimes, it takes a disaster to make us stop taking things for granted, and push us towards collaborating on improving things for ourselves and future generations.

Prepare for coronavirus, just like you prepare for a bad flu every winter season. Coronavirus will not be lethal in our country due to our very good medical system.

Remember when the sky was falling when it was a Spanish flu, swine flu, bird flu, West Nile, mad cow, etc.? Many fear-mongerings, I swear.

Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they are pursuing different types of vaccine-shots developed from new technologies faster to make than traditional inoculations, but might prove more potent. With all labs racing for cure, will ultimately give us the best chance of getting something successful and life-saving for mankind.