As I watch my stock plummet, I feel like it’s finally time to address the Coronavirus. Like the 900 pound elephant who craps all over the room, I’ve mostly been trying to just not stare at it too hard, but it’s here, it’s real, it’s happening, and this is a blog where I write about my thoughts about the world and so it’s time to address this. I wish I had a clear sound bite for you about how i feel about all this. One of the reasons I’ve been hesitating to write about it was because I didn’t. So here are my complex, adult, non-sound-bite-y things to say about the Coronavirus:

First, I have to admit that part of me warms on the inside seeing humanity take an important scientific event seriously. It feels like science is always warning us of this, that or the other thing and mostly people just shrug and look the other way. I see people doing rational things like washing their hands and not shaking hands. I don’t see a lot of pseudoscience. I know there are stories of people not eating Chinese food because of fear of the virus, but mostly I get the sense that people are trying to use their heads.

Second, I don’t think there’s anything really to be all that worried about, at least in terms of the actual physical consequences of the virus. Like, I’m not personally worried about the impact on my health. I think this will mostly all blow over and everyone will be fine in the end.

However, that is cold comfort for anyone who is actually affected by the situation. Some people will, regretfully, die from this, and that’s a shame. I worry a little about my parents, who are older. I worry for my friends that just had a baby (though the disease doesn’t seem to do much to kids).

Perhaps most importantly, I worry about the very real consequences that very real people are currently experiencing as a result of the psychic damage and panic associated with the virus. Just in the last few days I, personally:
- Lost a ton of money in the stock market
- Watched the Game Developer Conference get canceled for the first time ever
- Was told I had to work from home
- Watched SXSW get cancelled

And I know there’s more to come. What’s happening here - regardless of the medical consequences - is heartbreaking for some folks. And it’s hard to know what to say. I mean, I know that for me personally the right answer is to just live my life the same way I always have. I’m not scared. But I won’t fault my friend too much if he doesn’t want to take his kids to the park, or if my parents don’t much feel like going to a football game. I mean, the disease is real, and it will affect some people. It’s disingenuous and rude to say it’s a big nothing.

And, finally, there’s the politics. It’s obvious that Donald Trump is not equal to this moment. On the one hand, I feel compelled to say, in the interest of fairness, that some of his protests are correct; people are overdoing it, there is too much panic, and some of it is unfairly directed at him. Having said that, the man is tone deaf, and it may finally be coming back to haunt him. His government - the one he chose to put together - is now made of toadies and climate deniers, and it turns out they aren’t very good at dealing with a scientific crisis. They’re not even good at being kind and compassionate while they screw it up. They come across like what they are: trust fund babies who just found out they failed chemistry because their effort to buy the answers to the test didn’t work. I absolutely want them to right the ship and turn around their response to this, because real human lives are on the line. But if they don’t - and that’s up to them really - the only good consequence of this whole sad thing is that we will soon get a chance to express our displeasure.

So, those are my complex thoughts. It’s sad, it’s probably ok, and maybe this is just the way the world works now.

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