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Depends on what people define as panic and the degree of it. I started stocking up food a couple of things a time in January and many people told me I was panicking. If a lot more people had panicked like me shopping would be easier.

As it turns out I didn't panic enough either, I should have had more toilet paper and pasta to get through the panic from other people.

Mitigation is not "panicking". The earlier you do it, the less costly.

Reading that comment charitably, I guess they meant something about fear sometimes being a productive motivating emotion. In my view, panic is fear strong enough to override rationality. Cool-headed fear might be a good thing, but panic usually isn't.

Right, panic is pure emotion, fight or flight, hard be rational in that state. Covid19 is "sobering". 100 years since the 1918 flu and we still aren't ready. Even with the billions we spend on health care.