The Novel Coronavirus Is Terrifying

But is the fear based on reality or hype?

Pictured: Scary? Source: Pexels

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you’re looking for up-to-date information on the coronavirus, the best place to go is the World Health Organization’s website on the virus, or your local health authority.

There’s no two ways about it: the thought of a global pandemic is a scary thing. It’s the sort of scenario that has people appearing on Doomsday Preppers dressed in camo, trying in vain to commando-roll with the seventeen guns strapped to their back. All throughout history, we have feared the outbreak of disease, and our globalized world has only made that fear worse.

Pillow forts — the best solution in times of crisis Source: Pexels

So it makes sense that, after hearing that a new coronavirus — a type of virus that infects humans and animals — has been identified in an outbreak in China, we all immediately push on the panic button. Stories have been abounding about the imminent peril to the world that this new virus represents, with people already buying up medical supplies and barricading themselves away across the world.

But while this virus is definitely a serious public health concern — if nothing else, it has already killed 132 people — the…