by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have no idea if we’re in a pandemic or not. For me to know for sure, a few things would have to happen. I just don’t know what’s going on. I’m NOT a medical professional and all I can give you is an educated opinion based on what I’ve come to believe from looking at Twitter.
- There would have to be major outbreaks of WuFlu all over the world at the same time.
- Significant deaths would have to take place in the West
- People would start to make economic decisions on their fears associated with WuFlu
None of those things have happened yet in real terms, so it could still be that this is just going to be another one of those scares that stays an abstract in the West. Given how much the States is in debt to China, it’s at least a little less possible for Trump to demagogue the situation and blame Chinese people for all his problems. Not saying he won’t try, but his usual racist routine may not be as effective.
Right now, my main metric is the number of fatalities — especially in the West. But in real terms, it could be that the fatality rate stays relatively low but the perception is enough that it causes a panic that is totally not connected to the size of the threat.
All it takes is one person being video taped keeling over from WuFlu in Times Square and all hell will break loose.
Anyway, stay safe and don’t panic.
