I would argue that fear is the most destructive human emotion. The power of fear is staggering. Someone in the vice grip of fear loses all reasoning ability, reverting to an animal state of emotional reaction. It has the power to compel someone to make the most irrational of decisions, decisions that can have devastating long-term consequences. Our leaders are making fear-based decisions, the media is pumping out a continuous stream of fear-inducing headlines, and the rest of us are attempting to navigate this new reality with as much cool-headedness as we can muster. For the most part, everyone I’ve encountered has not been ensnared in the fear that the media and government so desperately wish us to be caught up in. Everyone is fairly calm, although I do see plenty of face masks. They are trying their best to take the advice of their government, practice “social distancing”, and stay at home. Their businesses shuttered or operations curtailed, they are attempting to be good citizens, and are placing their trust in what their government is telling them. But it can only go on for so long. Fear is on the horizon, real fear, but not of a virus. It’s the fear of economic insecurity, the fear that they won’t receive a paycheck, or rather one much smaller than they are used to.  Fear has led to a domino-collapse of economic activity. Economic activity is lives and livelihoods. A ceasing of economic activity will instill a level of fear that no virus ever could.

We are told that this is a war against a virus, and the language now being used mirrors the language used to prosecute the “War on Terror”. But the real war is against our fear. This fear that we now feel is giving our own government free reign to impose martial law. To find our way out of this rapidly deteriorating situation, we must refuse to give in to the fear that we are being force-fed. If unemployment hits 30% in this country, no one will give a damn about a seasonal respiratory infection. They will be too focused on finding work, and feeding their family. What we are witnessing is the power of fear, and it’s ability to rapidly lay the foundation for authoritarianism and destruction.

If our species experiences a true apocalypse, it’s cause won’t be some disease or other natural disaster. It will be self-inflicted. We are our own worst enemies.

From WDSU

What is the rationale behind these destructive shelter-in-place orders? COVID-19 will still be here when everyone emerges from their homes. Life will eventually have to go on.

Life goes on under threat of the flu, a bigger killer than COVID-19, and it should continue to go on now.

A voice of reason.

Of course mayors are still able to cosplay dictator to their heart’s content, and destroy local business in the process.

The headlines being written for the COVID-19 spread are unbelievably reckless. But other writers do have cooler heads, and Spiked’s Brendan O’Neil calls out the elites for their “luxury of apocalypticism”, as well as the government response as more performative art or apocalypse theater than an actual measured response. COVID-19 is a health challenge, not the end of the world. But an economic collapse triggered by reckless government policy could very well feel like an apocalypse for many, and for a very long time. It isn’t worth it, especially now that we are discovering that coronavirus is about as dangerous as seasonal flu.

From Times of Israel:

No lock down, low mortality rate, decreasing number of newly infected, and an admirable ability to administer COVID-19 tests quickly and accurately.

“South Korea is a democratic republic, we feel a lockdown is not a reasonable choice”-Kim Woo-Joo, infectious disease specialist at Korea University.

More evidence that it’s time to calm down.

The events of the past week have made it clear that cooler heads are not prevailing in the present crisis. The question that US residents should now be asking themselves and their leaders is whether preemptively creating an economic collapse is worth buying a few weeks of slowed spread of COVID-19. Should the entire world economy shut down to slow the spread of virus that is beginning to appear to be about as serious as seasonal flu? One wonders. What happens when the curfew lifts and we find that coronavirus is still here and still infecting people? As of now, the world is staring into an abyss entirely of its own making as it scares itself to death over the phantom illness. COVID-19, as frightening as it may seem to some people, is nothing compared to a collapse of world trade, hyper-inflation, or martial law, or the abrupt rise in authoritarianism that is sweeping the globe. If you go to the grocery store to find it empty, coronavirus will never again enter your mind. If the cash in your wallet suddenly becomes worthless, you’ll wonder what the media-hyped hysteria was all for. COVID-19 is apparently everywhere, with many of the infected either asymptomatic, or experiencing a mild illness similar to the common cold. The average age of the dead appears to be hovering around 81, Despite the hyperbolic fearmongering, Italy has experienced just three deaths from coronavirus where no other illness was present.

Many other sources are pointing to a far lower mortality rate, one closer to, or even less than, that of seasonal flu. Is this really what we’re burning our way of life over?

If COVID-19 is here permanently, meaning it will return every winter, then we need to realize very soon that we can’t cower in fear and shut down the country every single year. We have to go on with our lives, and we have to refuse to give credence to the fearmongering of the national media.

Humanity’s true problem, one that it must solve as soon as possible, is the addiction that world governments have to creating Pandora’s Boxes. Whether it’s the atomic bomb or other weapons, lethal viruses, or fragile economic systems that are built upon foundations of silt, or even precariously limited powers granted to government, constitutions created with built-in back doors for totalitarianism to enter, our real problem is irresponsible governments gambling with doomsday devices. Our problem is that Leviathan’s ashes remain unscattered, and so it suddenly appears during crises, as it has now, and grows in power and influence after each. When will our government relinquish its total power over the economy? It’s getting a taste of the immense freedom and power it currently has, and it will not be easy to take it back.

Great insights from Paul Offit on the dangerous hysteria surrounding the relatively mild COVID-19 infection: