First, to be clear, I am no expert when it comes to coronaviruses of any kind, or epidemiology, medical practices etc. I am someone, like most of you reading this, being affected by the dramatic outbreak of this novel coronavirus. So, as a person in our industry, I’m doing a lot of research and reading and am basically of the same mind as Ray Wang and others – this is not a reason to freak out and panic. It’s a reason to respond with the measures that minimize the possibility of infection while the experts do their work and find out how to combat this. If I was looking at my schedule last week, I’d have said that I had a busy March – and I did. Last week I flew out to San Francisco from Washington Dulles to do an advisory day with Oracle. However, while I was in San Francisco: This had started before I left. When I got to Dulles, it was eerily empty and the flight to San Francisco was light – which is literally the first time I can remember that in years. The Dulles to SFO route is routinely packed – until that day. The San Francisco airport was pretty busy – maybe 15% -20% down from normal but still busy. On the return, the American Express Centurion Lounge was packed to the walls – so some things can clearly survive this outbreak. So, I think we can easily conclude, the world is frightened about COVID-19. Having been through the fear of pandemic once before in 2009 with H1N1 aka swine flu, please remember a few things:
The good that tech companies are doing that should be imitated
Resources
Here are some great resources to keep you sane – and safe. Remember, we don’t know much about it yet, including the number of actual cases, due to the unreported/undiscovered cases. The bad news is that there are a lot more most likely – but that means some good news too. That means the percentage of those dying of the coronavirus is likely much smaller than the reported 3.4% of the identified cases. So, again, keep balanced here and sane, not just safe. Let the experts do what they do and listen to those who are neither panicking or promoting panic. @AdamJKurcharski @BogochIsaac @ScottGottliebMD @larrybrilliant @Laurie_Garrett 7. A good explanation on why soap and water work so well on viruses like this. For now, that’s about all the support I can provide that stays within what I do actually know. I’m not going to babble on with my “learned” opinion on this, going to areas that I have ZERO expertise in. I’m only going to argue for the one thing I am qualified to argue for – reason rather than panic and fear. There are no guarantees that we will get through this because nothing in life is guaranteed, but let’s just say the odds weigh heavily in our favor. Let me close with something I wrote a few years ago about how I think about the people we as a species, are: So, stay safe, stay home as much as you are able and wash your hands with soap and water. We will answer this.
