Scroll through social media and you’ll find a who’s who of Yellowtard Netizens kicking up tililing rampages over the novel coronavirus threat. These are the very same people who shrieked bloody “tragedy” when Taal Volcano first erupted.
People need to get a grip. Robert Dingwall writing for Wired suggests, “Fear, finger-pointing, and militaristic action against the virus are unproductive. We may be better off adjusting to a new normal of periodic outbreaks.”
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Whenever new infections emerged, the first response was invariably fear that they’d become an existential threat to humanity. We are all going to die. The second response was to see the outbreak as a verdict on human failings; divine judgement has gradually been replaced by political miscalculation. The third response was to engage in action, however pointless, intended to “do something” about the threat.
Really, there’s no need to panic, because it seems, in this as in many previous cases, the panic itself does more damage than the perceived threat that caused said panic. What we need are level heads and not clucking hens we see infesting social media today.
Webmaster of Get Real Philippines