Online panic: a coronavirus case study

nesslabs.com

9 pointsanthilemoon4 comments

I do not advocate panic, but I also find the reassuring posts about coronavirus a bit insensitive, and this one is a good example

> That’s why most people who die from a seasonal flu infection are older people. And this is exactly what’s happening with this new strain of coronavirus: people who are already sick and older people tend to suffer the most from it.

Sure if you don't have young children, are not over 70 or are in good health, you have nothing to fear, but this kinda suck for people potentially affected to have another flu-like virus in circulation, isn't it?

I find it a bit dismissive to basically say : it is not too bad a few hundred/thousand old people will die and that's it.

Sorry if that's how it came across! Didn't mean to be insensitive. My point was that so far the coronavirus is not worse than the seasonal flu (400,000 deaths each year), where we don't see the same panic.

Sorry my post appears like a low effort dismissal, and I did not want to single out your post specifically, but I think there should be a middle ground between this is the end or this is a non event.

I agree — this is happening and people are dying. I just wish we could acknowledge the tragedy without creating a non-existent World War Z.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com