It’s fear, baby. Not death.

She was reading intensely on her phone, the nurse who sat slouched beside me in one of the staff room’s soft chairs. You know those that automatically will trigger your body into taking a position that is profoundly unhelpful in just about every single way. That will worsen your posture, tense your neck and as they force your chest to collapse, turn your breathing shallow and inefficient.

As the nurse sighed and moved over to the desk her back was allowed to stretch out for a moment. She called someone, someone she cared for, someone she’d put her trust in.

“Yeah, I just saw it now on Facebook. He’s only thirty something with no medical history – all fit and well. And now; now he’s in intensive care, on a ventilator.” Her voice trembled slightly. It was clear that the plague had taken yet another menacing step towards us.

Those chairs are double bad in times such as these. Because it’s now we need to breathe. New air filled with bravery, altruism and proud independent critical thinking. But all I can see, hear and feel is fear.

And with every hour of screen time our fear increases. Pity because fear tends to be irrational, short sighted and stupid.

Plagues pass. The globe will continue to turn. It’s even tremendously likely that you’ll be on it when this is over.

Corona might kill thousands in the UK this year (335 killed so far). That is no small thing and lots of people will suffer as a result. But, for the very most, life will go on.

Over 1700 people, nearly 5 a day, gets killed in the traffic in the UK every year. That goes up to 73 a day if you include the seriously injured. And that was last year and the one before that. And the one before that. And it will be next year and next and…

But we think, wrongly, that we’re in control in the traffic and therefore we’re not afraid. An evil plague from dodgy countries far away on the other hand… Having waited quietly in hell for centuries, for the right moment to unleash and reap its victims with cruel satisfaction. An old boy here, a hospital consultant there… THAT will send our emotions into panic and panic, as a rule, is never pretty.

Panic makes people stockpile so others don’t get what they need (that’s me running out of oats, you idiot). It will make nurses go out of their way not to help out on risky ITU wards. (You think all nurses are heroes; think again.) And instead of taking the opportunity to lose weight, make love, or embark on hour long messy cooking adventures with the little ones, we sit glued to our screens, further increasing our fears.

Fellow citizen, you got all the odds on your side. So while you obey Boris’ orders, calm down. You’re likely to be alright. Put that phone down. Read a book. Play a vinyl record. Call an old friend. Pray to your God and if he’s there – please tell me. Can’t wait meet the guy.

When discussing diseases, it frightens people a lot because they keep hearing about new cases every day. But the fact that the infection rate is slowing down means the end of the pandemic is near

Professor Michael Levitt, Nobel prize winner for chemistry in 2013, noticed that China’s Hubei Province had 1,800 new cases every day. Exponential growth was seen till February 6, but the next day, “the number of new infections started to drop linearly and did not stop”. After a week, the same happened with the number of deaths.

Based on these statistics, Levitt predicted the pandemic will lose its power within two weeks. Now the Israeli scientist believes the virus will be gone from China by March-end.

He added that if countries ensure social distancing and minimal travel, then most will be able to get rid of the viral outbreak soon. The “real” situation, Levitt said was not as “terrible as they make it out to be”.

www.firstpost.com

www.thetimes.co.uk