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Behaving sensibly in the face of Covid-19 seems a stretch for many.

My younger daughter has just started university and I am restraining myself from suggesting that she chucks it in and instead sells toilet paper on eBay. The hyper-reaction to the spread of Covid-19 surely demonstrates that there would be a profitable business in delivering supplies to the worried well. There are already people who deliver supplies to the sick. They are called friends.

At my local supermarket this week, my scientific poll of people selecting their trolleys showed that of the five customers following me, four wiped the trolley handles with storeprovided sanitised wipes before heading into the fray. Only I and one other did not, and I refrained from shouting at the 66.6% not to be so stupid. I stopped myself only because I did not want to be evicted before buying my chocolate.

It is as though germs have just been discovered and society is figuring out how to live with this frightening knowledge. “Eww, there might be one there! Quick! Get your mask and gloves and pour disinfectant on it.”

One possible reason for this hysteria sweeping the world is that the flu has long been underplayed.

There are always those who, with a minor sniffle, say, “I’ve got the flu.” No, usually it’s just a cold, and a mild one at that. Influenza has always been a serious illness, just as Covid-19 is serious. However, most people in this year’s flu season will not contract Covid-19 or any other type of flu. Of those who do, most will suffer only mild symptoms, whereas some will be knocked flat for several days. Unfortunately, a proportion will die. Most of the fatalities will be people with pre-existing health conditions. This happens every year and the media does not breathlessly report each flu death, the Government does not ban people from entering the country and no one stockpiles pasta. Do you prefer fettuccine or macaroni for self-isolation?

Internationally, air quality and trampled tourism hotspots will get a respite during the downturn that is occurring, but the economic toll is significant and will adversely affect households as, ironically, it spreads like a contagion. And for what reason, exactly? The fear that has crashed markets, stranded cruise ships and caused fights in supermarket aisles is out of all proportion to the risk. Health workers have reasons to take extra precautions. The rest of us don’t need to sell shares or stockpile anything; just wash our hands more often and be sensible. For many, the last part seems the hardest.

Publisher Hachette’s decision to drop the memoir of filmmaker Woody Allen is the latest high-profile example of a liberal elite taking it upon themselves to ensure people they do not like have difficulty being heard.

We saw it in New Zealand when Massey University denied former National Party leader Don Brash the right to talk on campus and, more recently, SkyCity “de-platformed” philosopher Peter Singer who thinks that, in some circumstances, a case can be made for infanticide. I have lived overseas for the past three years, but strike me down if while I was away Brash became an incendiary figure from whom young people need protection.

It is likely that Hachette, Massey and SkyCity’s actions are the result of fear of the trolling, protests and boycotts that would probably come with hosting anyone who espouses something with which liberals disagree. In Allen’s case, that is his own innocence. These outfits need to stiffen their spines.

Rugby Australia, not knowing what to do when hit by a crisis that did not involve a leather ball, could not cope with Israel Folau’s fundamentalist Christian beliefs. A publisher, a university and a conference centre should have no such struggle with freedom of expression.

While I was away, did Don Brash became an incendiary figure from whom young people need protection?

“Our business model achieves huge profits just before it causes the end of the world.”