I usually do research online to look for a ray of hope. But everywhere I look just makes me feel even more hopeless. No vaccine in sight, poor government responses, exponential spreading, horrible stories of suffering.
How is everyone coping?
- Limiting myself to news on the topic 1x/day, which is plenty to stay abreast
- Keeping an eye on my thoughts. Is my thinking on the topic productive (e.g., helping me come up with new useful things to do, like helping friends prepare?) or merely repetitive (i.e., a waste of attention?)
- If repetitive, I practice mindfulness by gently noting to myself (not in a self-flagellating way) whenever I'm having thoughts or feelings about coronavirus, and then just refocusing on the thing I intend to be doing.
Also, it's normal to have a period of difficulty when coming to terms with something bad. It can help you be emotionally prepared for what's coming, rather than having to confront it during the crisis.
In case it helps, one thing that Marc Lipsitch (https://twitter.com/mlipsitch) points out is that this pandemic is not an existential threat. It is bad, and it will affect people you know and perhaps you in a bad way, but the world will go on.
If your not the gaming type you might want to try focusing on US politics, though that may be worse.
My personal solution has been to focus on planning my garden, nothing makes me feel better than when I have my hands in the dirt. I have been spending my free time reading about different plants and browsing seed web sites.
The virus is comming there are steps you can take to prepare but other than that it's best to take a stoic point of view, what is going to happen will happen wether you stress out about it or not, so just don't bother.