So I'm wrong but will keep this up for some humble pie.
Aug 15, update; there are over 174,000 dead in US (#1) and 9000 in Canada (#24)
Conspiracies are all the rage right now, masks are semi-voluntary, the US election is nowhere near the same amount of hype/hysteria as it was 4 years ago so at least we have that going for us.
PANDEMIC!
Coronavirus is all the news nowadays. As far as I'm concerned it's a variation of the flu and I fear that I am the only one who remembers the media panic of SARS, the bird flu, avian flu, ebola and flesh-eating disease that ran their course over the last two decades.
Emotion is contagious; if one of us laughs, others laugh. That is why comedies feel so much funnier in theaters; stand-up comedy is done in front of an audience instead of one by one. Funerals are where people gather to feel sad. We avoid funerals so we don't feel sad(der).
Weddings make us happy. Winning as a group, losing as a group, it makes us feel emotions that are increased by the amount of people we are sharing that emotion with.
This is the basis of mob mentality; our emotions, heightened by others, make us do things that we would not otherwise do as individuals.
And the current emotion running through society is fear, pushed by social media and a large international organization called WHO.
Beware of Coronavirus.
For some reason, this is worse than all the others most of us have lived through before. And because we are now a world that thrives on fear, we relish the opportunity to do what we are told because of flu epidemic that hit a country on the other side of the globe
We are flourishing on fear, our leaders are showing each other what we are made of. And this is what we have shown;
All international travel is highly discouraged.
If you do travel, you are to self-quarantine yourself for two weeks before returning to your employment. Nobody will check up on this - you are to police yourself. WE are counting on you to be honest about your travels.
All events or gatherings of more than 250 people is forbidden.
That means ALL sports, from the NHL to the local ringette end-of-season dinner has been postponed/cancelled.
School districts are shutting down despite no children having been diagnosed.
Churches are closing their doors (read that one again and note the hypocrisy)
St. Paddy day parades cancelled!
There is an increasing push to create work-from-home scenarios so people don't have to go into work.
There is a big public information push to wash your hands.
There is an unfathomable, unexplainable rush on toilet paper.
Athletes are offering to pay the wages of stadium employees who would otherwise be serving over-priced food and beverages to their fans.
Big businesses are spamming emails, declaring how they 'are navigating' this pandemic which has KILLED 62 people in the US (of 331 million) and 1 person in Canada (of 37 million). Yes, it will be more but that's it as of March 15th, 2020.
To date, according to https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ there have been 6000 deaths world-wide. 76,000 have recovered. The breakdwown of the age of fatalities is broken down on this page; https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/ . According to CNN, the average age is 80. No child has died from coronavirus.
There are over 7.7 billion people in the world.
7.7 billion.
Do the math. This is not a pandemic; this is nature. Sickness kills off the old and the weak. It is nothing personal, it's saying your time is up. Time to move over, shuffle off this mortal coil, face the music, pay your tab, check your balance, meet your maker, etc. etc. etc.
Yet here we are. Two weeks into March. The Apocalypse is upon us.
I have logged off Facebook. I found it to be part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
I am sure there are sane people among us; plenty in health care. Yet our self-isolation cuts away that sense of group rationality. FB does the same. Funny memes or videos on Toilet paper mobs do nothing buy hype the situation, only help stoke the flames of fear. We have been told to self-quarantine and so most of us will. We are obedient sheep and all it took was a little snowball to create this avalanche of fear. Much like AIDS, SARS, Bird flu, swine flu etc.
I am old enough to remember this situation playing out so many times before. News clips of everyone wearing face masks, nobody in our social circle having any personal experience of said deadly disease and then we continued on as if it never happened.
The difference this time is how influential social media has become; it not only pushes the snowball but creates more of them. It is our most trusted news source.
And this is the Catch 22 of our times; the argument will be that thanks to these restrictions, the pandemic never happened. If we didn't have these restrictions, we'd have deaths in the millions. We can't prove that wouldn't happen as we are not given the opportunity.
It's like saying those day-glow head-to-toe uniforms traffic control people wear keep them safer as opposed to only wearing a day-glow jacket. You can't argue with safety.
Group mentality wins out. Nobody is brave enough to call bullshit because YOU ARE THREATENING SOMEONE'S LIFE!
Yet, if Death is going to happen, it's going to happen. Your time is up; be it from an elderly driver behind the wheel, cardiac arrest, ski jump, or a 7 year old with a runny nose.
Yet here we are. 1 person dead in Canada has ground near everything to a halt except the Internet.
I especially love that the Houses of God are encouraging their parishioners not to gather there. There's a huge irony in that.
Good luck, everyone.
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