Collective fear: Dealing with the panic around coronavirus

Bottles of disinfectant are suddenly mounted on office walls. People want to be tested even if they show no or only minor symptoms. Trade fairs are being cancelled, party conferences are on the brink. And yet every morning the train is tortuously full as usual. And why wouldn’t it be? Should we really follow the advice of scientists and go into closed quarantine?

No, we don’t. Although, the scientists are also right, strictly speaking: If everyone would sit still where they are for two weeks the virus would hardly stand a chance. But unlike in Italy, for example, the epidemic in Germany is, as the experts tell us, still in the “containment” phase. In other words, infected persons are isolated and treated, contact persons are tracked down. A kindergarten or a school might be closed down, but not the whole country.

So do we have to do our panic-buying now, as some have already done here and there? When a whole society is gripped by fear, all good manners fall by the wayside. So people are hoarding protective face masks, even though, the experts tell us, they are of no use, but are urgently needed in hospitals and doctors’ surgeries. Moreover, it is obviously criminal to steal masks and sell them at a marked-up price on the internet. But it can only happen because people easily fall into hysteria and create the illegal market in the first place.

At press conferences, some journalists’ questions actually only prove how stupid people can be. Why is there still no vaccine, one asked, with accusatory undertone. Virologist Christian Drosten, who is feverishly researching a corona vaccine with his international colleagues, is forced to make an effort to control himself with difficulty and repeat the same lines: The virus is new, many things are still unknown, we are working on it, but there is no faster way.

In essence, then, we are dealingwith a collective fear event. In our prosperous, technically-controlled and automated world, we are no longer used to things being unpredictable. And therefore, we like to assume the worst.

It is like flying: Experts and statisticians never tire of pointing out that the airplane is the safest of all means of transportation. The risk of dying in road traffic is much higher. But the images of horrible plane crashes just keep on etching themselves onto our brains. The many thousands of successful take-offs and landings, every day, just happen, and aren’t worth a headline.

Certainly, the health system has weaknesses, the health authorities in the municipalities are overstretched and short of staff. And globalisation has its insane sides, which has become apparent by how many drugs are produced in China that we are now short of.

Let’s take the virus seriously, listen to the experts, and keep our nerve. Don’t forget to wash your hands, refrain from shaking hands in greeting, and instead smile nicely. And let’s not assume the worst.