Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I am not a doctor or an epidemiologist. I am a regular guy who sees the world and tries to understand it from a very common sense point of view. Tragedy has struck China, the virus has spread around the world. The Coronavirus is a problem and it must be dealt with. I am not a denier: what I will say is stay calm and don’t panic.

Here’s what we know: Coronavirus is a variation on a bat virus found in the Hubei region of China, and it has spread. We don’t know how much: the Chinese Communist government has withheld information as much as possible. However, it has spread outside of China. It has spread throughout South Korea, Japan, and Italy. One of the major difficulties is its three week dormancy: it it can spread and infect, but symptoms aren’t yet visible.

Although Coronavirus may spread around the world, it is not a virulent strain. Until we have better information, mortality rates are low in developed nations.

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As of February 23, 2020, there have been thirty-five cases in the US, killing zero. Japan has had 155 confirmed cases, with one death. South Korea, connected by land to China, has had 607 cases, with six deaths. All these nations have better health systems than China does, so the mortality rate has been lower than one percent. That’s not to say that mortality cases won’t rise, but if they stay at these low ratios, we don’t need to panic. The vast majority of those infected recover.

The markets are panicking on February 24, 2020, but part of that is the reaction over the weekend. It’s reacting to three days of reports, rather than one. The best thing to do is to take life day-by-day. Don’t let the news frighten you. If you are a healthy adult or school-age child, this almost certainly won’t kill you. There’s a chance you might get infected. If you treat it like the flu, however, you’re going to recover. WebMD reports that symptoms are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. You may not even know if you get it: you may mistake the symptoms for the flu. Stay at home, so you’re not spreading any virus, but you won’t get any symptoms out of the ordinary to a cold or the flu.

The worst thing a person can do is panic. If you feel the urge stock up on supplies, go for it. Want to put emergency food and water in you basement? It can’t hurt. But unless you’re elderly, a baby, or have some immunity issues, Coronavirus won’t do worse than put you up for a few days.