As IF Times

source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/nba-suspends-season-until-further-notice-over-coronavirus/ar-BB114bRv?OCID=ansmsnnews11

It’s gone viral. The panic and hysteria over Covid 19 is spreading faster than the actual illness. With deference to The Babylon Bee, here are some recent actual headlines from the media:

How to wash hands with lyrics

Italians won’t eat smooth pasta

Virus can live up to 3 days on surfaces

Congress closes US Capitol 

Stock markets panic

Doctors claim new corona virus causes damage to men’s testicles

Oregon and Washington ban gatherings on 250 or more

Ticket company tells customers to wear hazmat suits for Broadway show

Princess Cruises to stop all travel for 2 months

Panicked Americans stockpiling toilet paper

Famous tourist attractions deserted

Universities restricted to on-line classes

Prison labor to make hand sanitizer 

It’s as if the world became a massive sci-fi movie set; a modern day version of War Of The Worlds radio broadcast during the 1930’s famously causing widespread panic among the American public.  At that time, the broadcast was clearly advertised as fictional, but nevertheless, once word got out to people who didn’t know any better, an hysteria gripped the public like, well….like a virus.  The notion that earth would be taken over by Martians in 40 minutes didn’t seem  preposterous to many at the time.  Even the people who knew it was a fictional show at the time got caught up in the hysteria according to reports;

“…The broadcast, which disrupted households, interrupted religious services, created traffic jams and clogged communications systems, was made by Orson Welles, who as the radio character, “The Shadow,” used to give “the creeps” to countless child listeners. This time at least a score of adults required medical treatment for shock and hysteria…”

In the present day, the Covid 19 virus outbreak isn’t fiction, but the over the top irrational response of people is eerily similar to the mini panic caused by Wells during his fictional show. Considering that actual fatalities have thus far been few compared to normal incidences of the ‘flu according to one source,  the level of hysteria is both amusing and at the same time frightening to see.  As some have noted, the total number of deaths attributable to Covid 19 is thus far less than a weekend of murders in Chicago.

People are sequestering themselves as if it was the black death of previous centuries.  All I know is that in times such as this, the populace becomes vulnerable to whatever edicts are issued by ‘official’ sources.  Companies are bullied into offering official policy statements to their constituents to insulate themselves from legal issues should any real grief come to pass. I’m reasonably optimistic that people will survive this recent health hysteria.  Surviving the ensuing legal onslaught will be more daunting.

source: https://nationalpost.com/news/world/coronavirus-covid19-covid-19-pandemic-canada

In only a few weeks the world has gone from relative ignorance about covid-19 to full blown panic over an infection that appears to be spreading exponentially.  While the nexus of the virus seemed to originate in China, incidents of infection are being found worldwide, even in unlikely places such as Italy and Iran. The fear and panic has affected virtually every segment of society especially as it relates to travel.  There are stories of vacationers who embarked  upon 14 day cruises only to have that trip extended another 14 days in the form of a quarantine.

If nothing else, it’s a change from the boring narratives of the global warming crowd with their 16 year-olds moaning about lost childhood and missing penguins. I suspect that crowd may be annoyed at having their fake crisis spotlight taken away from them by a real crisis. All of a sudden, people are more concerned about the guy coughing next to them than a few absent polar bears. A genuine existential threat pushing away the fake one like it was leftover turkey the week after Thanksgiving.

I’m not in the medical business so I’ll defer to those experts who are charged with handling this outbreak.  The CDC has a website which reports the on-going status of the outbreak and people can do their own research.  As an obvious reminder to those who haven’t figured it out, CNN is not a source of information on this….or anything.  In addition, this video, created showing statistics by the World Health Organization may give a larger perspective on this and other epidemics in history.

None of this is meant to downplay the potential damage that this outbreak can cause; we need only look at the panic that has occurred in world stock markets to see that people are in full hysteria mode.  Few things focus the mind more clearly than the possibility of imminent death.  But is imminent death a high probability given the safeguards being put in place and with the advances of medical techniques not available in previous outbreaks?  Calmer voices think not.  Some of the keenest minds in the medical industry are working on a resolution to this problem right now and of course, we do expect a resolution. I’m not so convinced that hoarding freeze dried foods and deadbolting all doors is a rational course of action given what’s known….no matter what CNN says.

As I mentioned earlier, panic seems to grip people when they fear that imminent harm will come to them.  It’s the imminent part that creates the hysteria. Smoking is bad for you and it will likely kill you before your time.  But no one panics about it because that demise is way off in the future.  This is the same for all drugs including alcohol in great amounts.  These threats to personal well being can be avoided and yet, without imminent harm, these threats are blithely ignored.

As an illustration of how irrational people are,  we want to point out that there is something out there that is guaranteed to cause discomfort, suffering, starvation and has already been responsible for hundreds of millions of preventable deaths…and yet people embrace it anyway.  I am talking about socialist and communist philosophy  Despite all that we know about the history of such regimes, there are still those today who are proponents for their implementation.  These regimes don’t necessarily happen through the use of force.  Typically, they are allowed to rise because the populace are somehow convinced that policies of such regimes would benefit them in the long run.  The most common hooks are the promises of equality and fairness. They fail to see that a long miserable existence leading to a miserable death is likely in their future once collectivism takes hold.  Sweden, long regarded as model of ‘good socialism’ is devolving into a nation of prohibited speech and civil violence at a level not supposedly seen in a civilized nation.

Communist and socialist regimes are cancers on mankind and their ill effects eclipse any natural viral outbreak, including corona virus. While the idea is attractive to the minds of the mentally feeble, it doesn’t confer any benefit to those afflicted with its belief system.  At least with cigarettes and booze, you get a short term buzz.  As this article illustrates, the incidences of communist regimes throughout history have left in their wake hundreds of millions of people extinguished, if not directly by violence, then passively via starvation and oppression.  Few pandemics in history have wrought as much damage to the world’s population as that brought on by socialist/communist regimes.

It’s somewhat amusing to observe pundits of all kinds, hair alight, frantically warning about a virus breakout that is actively and urgently being addressed whereas they ignore the much more deadly political cancer generating popularity with the feeble minded.  It’s like worrying about a wasp flying into your house while at the same time leaving your basement door open to a yard filled with snakes. After this corona virus crisis is over, we hope scientists will find a cure for a much deadlier affliction:  mass psychosis.