Coronavirus Scare

Coronavirus Panics Public

Perhaps you have heard me speak about living beyond fear or creating a Culture of Confidence®. Maybe you have seen some of my blog posts dealing with those subjects. The situation with Covid-19 or the coronavirus compels me to speak out.

As you may know I am in that demographic that is at the highest risk of death should I contract the virus. Objectively, I suppose, I would be fall into the “elder” category. That is where most of the deaths are occurring.

Have I panicked? No. Should you? No.

Low Risk of Infection

The chances of me, or any one person in the United States are, at this point, very minimal. Yes, new cases of coronavirus are being discovered. And soon we will have a greater capacity for testing so it will appear that the virus is spreading even more. But it only means that more cases are being diagnosed.

And that is a good thing. It allows the medical professionals to take the appropriate steps to combat the virus.

Is there a cure or vaccine available? No. Keep this in mind, though. A flu shot is available to the general public here in America. According to the Center for Disease Control less than 50% of Americans get the flu shot. They take the chance that they won’t get the flu or if they do, they will recover. Approximately 16,000 people died from the flu and 280,000 people were hospitalized. See this article.

Don’t Have All The Facts

We are in a state of panic because we do not have all the facts. We see others overreacting and then we follow their overreactions. It is called the heard mentality. But we don’t have to do it.

For instance, there is no rational explanation for hoarding toilet paper because of coronavirus. Yet people are buying as much as they can because they are afraid they will run out. Really? It might surprise you but for years in the former Soviet Union it was almost impossible to get toilet paper anywhere. They seemed to have survived, though.

In my lifetime I have been in multiple car accidents, suffered a severe ankle fracture and total dislocation of my foot in a parachute accident, ridden my motorcycle to almost every state in the lower 48 states, rode it from New York to St. Louis (more than 1,000) miles in about 18 hours, rode it with some of the Hell’s Angels, tried more than 200 jury trials, handled cases involving some of the biggest organized crime figures of their time, been mugged by three guys and had one hell of a fight until one of them got shot, survived cancer three times and while undergoing chemotherapy contracted a staph infection the doctors thought might kill me and have been divorced five times. (Now happily married for over 12 years to the most wonderful woman in the world).

Don’t Be Scared

Am I afraid I will get the coronavirus? No. It is pretty hard to scare me.

Should you be scared? No. Should you take reasonable precautions? Sure.

Wash your hands, don’t needlessly handle items in public places. If you feel sick, stay home. Quit hugging everybody. Avoid shaking hands for a while, the opportunity will return. Have faith in your God that you will get through this and in the next breath thanks that you are going to come through this unscathed.