The coronavirus is in the air, both literally and figuratively. It is a pathogen that is transmitted by air that is occupying all the news, in addition to being unavoidable to talk to family and friends about it.
People tend to exaggerate threats, and this virus has been no exception, especially considering the rather objectionable way in which the media has covered the news.
Is this virus so bad? Is it worth the fear that is being generated? How to overcome the irrational fear of contagion? Below we will try to answer these questions, in addition to reflecting on how the coronavirus is affecting the population.
Overcome the irrational fear of contagion: what to do?
Since the coronavirus, more appropriately called COVID-19, appeared in the city of Wuhan in December last year, it has occupied the front page of all the newspapers and opened all the news programs. Everyone is waiting for the new news about the virus which is feared to acquire pandemic proportions and that, logically, generates a lot of fear in the population.
Not only China, the country with ground zero of contagion and that has had the most deaths, has registered a significant number of cases. Other Asian countries, such as South Korea or Iran, have stated that the number of cases detected in their territory is very high, which has forced the closure of borders with nearby countries and the suspension of various events, such as concerts and political meetings.
But obviously The virus has left the Asian continent and has reached America, Oceania and, also, Europe In fact, in Italy it has become a real problem that has caused the famous Venice Carnival festival to be cancelled, while in Spain, more for security reasons than anything else, it has been decided to cancel the Mobile World Congress, with the socioeconomic impact that this implies.
But despite the risk of acquiring the virus, there is only one thing much more contagious than COVID-19: fear. A fear that, based on morbidity and misinformation, has contributed to the generation of social alarm, although without reaching collective psychosis that has triggered certain behaviors that, more than avoiding acquiring the coronavirus, implies profound damage to the social fabric.
The danger of misinformation
Misinformation, hoaxes and exaggeration are very dangerous. The media, although not all, have treated the news in a tremendous way, selling the news that we are almost on the brink of the apocalypse. This, accompanied by the laziness of many citizens to properly document how the virus really affects health, has caused what was nothing more than another stationary virus to be seen as a death sentence.
It should be said that these types of beliefs are not surprising if we take into account that, in the 21st century, there are people who really believe that vaccines cause autism. Others have various conspiracy beliefs, such as that the virus has been manufactured in a laboratory to reduce the world population. It should be said that these types of ideas are not very original, given that there were many who believed this when Ebola, bird flu, swine flu, mad cow disease happened…
It is true that the virus is entailing medical and economic consequences. The possibility that we will run out of enough supplies to deal with many infections is a real thing. Many cases would involve an oversaturation of medical resources, and that is what is really scary. But the disease itself is not as serious as it is being presented in the media since its symptoms, mainly fever, cough and breathing problems, do not differ much from a common flu.
In addition, several experts consider that the recovery process from coronavirus is very similar to that of the flu. If you are a person with a good immune system, young, without respiratory problems or previous illnesses, if you contract the virus, you will most likely end up recovering.
What should we do to avoid fear?
The best way to overcome the irrational fear of contracting this virus is, as we were suggesting previously, to obtain adequate documentation. The media does not necessarily have to be exaggerating the news, but given that many want us to stay glued to the screen to stay up to date with what is happening, it is normal for them to sell it as something as serious as they paint it.
That is why it is best to watch television responsibly, and counteract information with web pages and other specialized medical resources, who are truly knowledgeable about the situation of the virus, its danger and the real risk of being faced with a pandemic. The WHO, the Official College of Physicians and other institutions offer scientific information on the coronavirus.
Another highly recommended thing is to stay calm and be aware of the extent to which we are exposed to the disease. Unless we have recently traveled to Asia, or know of a positive case of the virus, we are not people with a high probability of having acquired it. We must also be aware of our health and be aware of whether we are a risk group or not. If so, it is advisable to take extreme preventive measures and seek information and advice from our doctor.
We should not change our routine. If we normally go to work with public transportation, let’s continue doing so. Only in case the city or regional authorities say that it is contraindicated to use this transportation, or that you should not even leave the house or spend time depending on what places, we should not stop doing the things we do every day. Let’s not let an illness that has not yet affected us prevent us from following a normal life
Finally, something that is obvious, let’s not be afraid of Asian people. Let’s not treat them as if they were plague victims or potential carriers of the virus. A white person has the same risk of acquiring the virus as a Chinese citizen, let’s not feed stigmas.
So far, there have been nearly 82,000 cases of coronavirus registered around the world, the vast majority of them being in China (about 75,000), with 2,744 deaths in the Asian country. This sounds terrifying. However, why don’t we ask ourselves how many people have recovered?
At the moment, the recovery rate is significantly higher than the death rate, with almost 12,000 people who have had the virus already being completely cured. Most of the people who have died had pre-existing medical problems or have not been able to access health treatments in due time. These types of situations are common in countries whose rural regions do not have good healthcare, something that does not happen in Europe and other developed countries.
The fact that there is no vaccine for COVID-19 does not mean that it is necessarily fatal, given that, as we were commenting before, if you were healthy before acquiring the virus, it is most likely that you will end up overcoming the disease.
But despite these data, the media continues to give too much importance to the bad. This is normal and, in fact, In psychology it has a name: it is the negativity bias We tend to pay more attention to the bad rather than the good and, in this case, we are more concerned about the deaths, which to tell the truth are not that many, than the recovery rate, which is really high. Nor is it stressed that healthy people have little real chance of dying from the coronavirus.
A lot of coronavirus, but it’s not the worst
It is true that there have been several deaths due to the coronavirus, but the common flu, the one that comes every year, seems to be more deadly. In the United States, this last flu season has led to the deaths of 8,000, a number four times greater than the number of deaths from coronavirus in China, a country with a much larger population.
The flu is more deadly when you are in poorer health before acquiring it and if you do not have the appropriate medical resources to deal with it, as is the case with practically any disease, whether contagious or not. Taking this into account, How come we worry so much about the coronavirus instead of the flu, or any other more common illness?
Statistically speaking, the flu should be treated as something more serious, given that there are more cases, while the coronavirus, at the moment, has a mortality rate of only 2%. But the media does not cover the news about the flu because, unlike the coronavirus, it is not something new and, of course, it does not arouse as much interest.
Collective psychosis, stigma and exaggerated precautions
There is no doubt that the virus is affecting the way the population behaves and thinks, reaching the point where there are people who have radically changed their daily lives. Although it is appropriate to take preventive measures, these should not be so exaggerated that it seems that the remedy, or in this case, the prevention, is worse than the disease.
As the disease has originated in China, being originally attributed to the consumption of bat meat and, later, to pangolin meat (although the origin of the actual virus is still being sought), Asian citizens have begun to be discriminated against, both tourists as immigrants.
In Spain, for example, There are people who have stopped going to Chinese bazaars and restaurants for fear of getting infected This can be interpreted as a subtle form of racism (micro-racism) and contribute to the stigma that if you are Chinese you can have the disease. However, thinking about it coldly, how can a Chinese who has been living in Spain for ten years and without going to China get coronavirus just like that?
It makes sense to think that, by having relatives residing in China and who can visit them, they run a certain risk of acquiring the virus. However, this risk is also possible with any European, African, Australian or American person who has visited Asia or been in contact with people suspected of having the virus.
Although in Spain things have not reached a social alarm equivalent to a collective psychosis, it is true that there are people who are avoiding taking transport for fear of becoming infected. There is also buying medical supplies that are believed to prevent having the disease, as is the case with masks. In fact, in some places in Spain, such as the island of Menorca, pharmacies have been sold out, which in some way contributes to fueling the fear that at some point during the epidemic supplies will run out.
However, and taking advantage of the topic of masks, it should be noted that they do little to prevent the disease. The real usefulness of this medical material is to prevent, during surgical interventions, surgeons, when talking to each other, from spitting saliva on the patient’s open body. Since the air passes through the fabric of the mask and the coronavirus travels by air, they are not an effective preventive method, although they do prevent us from throwing contaminated saliva at other people when we sneeze. What is recommended is to wash your hands and face frequently, and preferably use disinfectant soaps
It is also worth noting that it is quite curious how people spend money on practically useless masks against a virus with a high probability of recovery, while to deal with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) condoms, which are effective, have no so much popularity. HIV, gonorrhea or syphilis are more common problems than coronavirus, preventable and, yet, people do not seem to take proper precautions against these serious diseases.
