How to avoid the corona virus (Covid-19) panic

The Corona virus panic is reminding me of the bug 2000 panic – it has no sense, and most likely “someone” (guess which industries?) is going to earn the prize. One of my workers is a heavy smoker and a heavy drinker – he is smoking a pack and a half of cigarettes each day, and he has the police caught him once for drunk-driving. He wrote me today that he is not coming to work because of his fear from the corona virus:

Fair enough, but it has no sense, this piece of work is done in a remote farm in New Zealand, the only other worker is around but he is there in a different area of the farm and on different times. It emphasizing for me how important it is to disconnect from the mass media (television, printed press, online press of mainstream media companies) and get connected with real people and creators – not with information that coming along from journalists.

In the bug 2000 drama, every serious IT guy knew that it is a faked hysteria. People were sure that everything is going to stop, they even spoke about nuclear missile rockets being launched by confused computers. Hospital equipment was supposed to stop working. Airlines were expecting airplanes to fall from the sky. But when 1/1/2000 came, nothing happened. The winners were all the IT companies which did “bug 2000 fixes”. Today the winners are insurance companies, and pharmaceutical organizations.

It does not mean that government shouldn’t take means to stop the spread of such a virus, or be cautious when it comes to hygiene, public safety and health. But hey, take it in proportions, stop smoking first and do your job, don’t get panicked – Covid19 is less harmful than many other diseases and so far, even less harmful than car accidents.

Back to my story, this is what I wrote to my worker, with no reply unfortunately:

All the best,

Eran