World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday that the “stigma” surrounding coronavirus was “more dangerous” than the illness itself, and advised people to “calm down.”

“Stigma, to be honest, is more dangerous than the virus itself. Fear and panic are dangerous,” he said, as reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune. “It’s fine to be concerned and worried, but let’s calm down and do the right things.”

Officials were optimistic about the global effort to contain the spread of the illness:

Of the 62 countries affected by COVID-19, 55 have fewer than 100 cases. Only four countries have more than 1,000 cases, Tedros said. WHO officials said it is rare to see a respiratory pathogen like this virus that can spread widely in the community but can also be contained. The flu cannot be as easily contained, officials said. “That offers us a glimmer, a chink of life that this virus can be suppressed and contained,” Mike Ryan, who runs the agency’s emergencies program, said in a briefing Monday.

The number of deaths in the U.S. continues to climb, but remains in single digits, as officials grapple with the twin tasks of containing the virus and reassuring the public. Stocks were in the red Tuesday, despite the Federal Reserve announcing that it had cut interest rates by 50 basis points to keep the economy strong through the outbreak.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He earned an A.B. in Social Studies and Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard College, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.<h2