by Peter Pavarini
Norman Vincent Peale’s 1952 classic The Power of Positive Thinking: A Practical Guide to Mastering the Problems of Everyday Living has sold more than 5 million copies and continues to be an influential self-help manual. It’s a shame that people around the globe, particularly those born after the Internet, never learned that positive thought drowns out negative thought (among Peale’s other principles). Faced with understandable concerns about the potential impact of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, far too many people have decided to assume the worst about this public health threat.
Notwithstanding the Evidence, People Engage in Negative Thinking. Despite an avalanche of credible evidence[i] that the overall clinical consequences of COVID-19 are likely to be “akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza”[ii], the ratings-driven media have focused on the relatively small number of fatalities[iii] attributable to the disease, cruise line disruptions and a likely delay in the next generation of iPhones. This kind of news is particularly inflammatory to a population of young people already convinced that the world will catastrophically end if greenhouse gases aren’t more or less eliminated by 2030. Negative thinking thrives in an environment already counting on an apocalypse.
A good dictionary definition of “panic” is a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong that it impedes rational thinking. In place of reason, a person suffering from panic has overwhelming feelings of anxiety and agitation consistent with what is known as a “fight or flight” reaction. As a species, human beings, especially ones vulnerable to the power of suggestion, are at risk of panicking. Stampeding pilgrims to Mecca and soccer fans at various stadiums around the globe are good examples of this phenomenon. But, until now, modern society has fortunately not experienced any major episodes of panic because of the fear of disease. In fact, in just the past two decades, we’ve seen a number of scares associated with the spread of anthrax, MRSA, SARS, avian flu, swine flu, ebola, zika, MERS, among others.[iv] None of these rattled the financial markets or had the economic consequences already tied to the coronavirus. Why is that? Could it be politics or have we become conditioned to think negatively about everything even in the face of reason?
What’s Happening in Italy. As an Italian-American with dual citizenship, I’ve been closely following how Italy is handling the coronavirus outbreak, especially in Lombardy, the province my mother’s family hails from. Today’s news reports make it sound like that part of the country is effectively in a lock-down, with schools, museums, and most public places closed to diminish the spread of the virus. Italians are said to be confused if not panicked by the instructions they are receiving from government officials. People want to know what will happen if they leave Northern Italy (where the healthcare system is said to be on the brink of collapse). If they go to another European country, what papers will they need, who must issue them, and who will stop them if they cross one of the E.U.’s open borders? Are we seeing what happens when people expect to move freely across the borders of countries that do not have a standard set of health protocols?
But at least in the U.S., it’s not our government leaders who are causing panic. Or are they? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently said, while addressing the coronavirus, that “civilization as we know it today is at stake in the next election, and certainly our planet.” Expect to hear more of this fearmongering in the coming weeks.
Putting Things in Perspective. The COVID-19 virus may eventually kill hundreds, even thousands in the U.S. before it succumbs to the warming of the northern hemisphere (a/k/a springtime). But – at this juncture – it’s unlikely to infect as many as the 32 million Americans who have already contracted seasonal influenza since the start of the flu season in September 2019. Nor is it likely to match the approximately 18,000 deaths caused by the flu in the U.S. during that time. Just as importantly, COVID-19 will dramatically demonstrate to the world the unparalleled excellence of the American healthcare system. Every year, medical errors kill far more people than seasonal flu (by a magnitude of 10 to 20 times). One can only wonder whether we’d experience fatality rates comparable to the Black Death (33%) under a Medicare For All program – one that promises healthcare for all but dumbs down the system so that it’s as inefficient and inept as other government-run, single-payer systems. Now that’s something which really should instill panic in the American people.
I’ll leave you with this thought. Is this the new normal? Will Americans freak-out again next winter when the cold and flu season hits? Will we remember to wash our hands as thoroughly and bump elbows instead of employ other public displays of affection? Will we blame whoever is president a year from now for any bug that is going around? If there is a silver lining, I hope we learn something from this year’s experience. Otherwise – as the old adage goes – history is bound to repeat itself.
[i] https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
[ii] Anthony Fauci, M.D., Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, March 8, 2020.
[iii] As of this writing, approximately 3,800 deaths have been linked with COVID-19, 24 of those deaths in the U.S. While any number of deaths is tragic, at this point, COVID-19 appears to be far less deadly than any number of related viral infections.
[iv] See a rather thorough listing of these disease threats in the World Health Organization’s Managing Epidemics (2018).
Sustain the excellent work and generating the crowd!