Don't Panic: Another Perspective On Coronavirus

Is it no more than a new flu virus with pretty similar consequences, or is it a frightening phenomenon and we must have lockdowns, curfews and what not including threats of arrest for not complying with the new rules?

- Lalith de Mel

An objective assessment is that it is probably somewhere in the middle of these extreme positions.

There is a lot of information available now on the new coronavirus.

The basic truth about coronavirus

Everybody who gets it will not die. Only about 2% of those who get it succumb to it. Those who do are generally the old who will probably be suffering from various ailments that come with age. There was initially a great fear bordering on panic because it was thought it can capture anyone and take them promptly away to the next world. I get the feeling that this panic is abating.

If 10,000 are infected with coronavirus, 9,800 will recover fully after a week of flu-like symptoms. A Panadol and cup of tea illness. There are no after-effects and there is a full recovery like a recovery from flu. no cause whatsoever for panic if you are not old and frail.

At 2% mortality 200 will die. Those who die are often the elderly with other health problems. Although it maybe coronavirus season, some who die will be those who have completed their innings and would have died anyway.