Coronavirus spreads fear, misinformation and bad policy ideas

It’s understandable that people are fearful of the coronavirus, the infectious respiratory illness that is resulting in widespread, worldwide panic.

But many reactions are counterproductive and out of proportion to the threat. Now’s the time to take a deep breath and follow the advice on those ubiquitous British motivational posters: “Keep calm and carry on.”

It’s one thing for some largescale public events to be cancelled. But some people are cleaning out stores of toilet paper and bottled water, which is nonsensical. There’s little likelihood that we’ll be holed up in our homes without basic household supplies. Such responses are overkill.

Responses from government officials have been a mixed bag as well. Gov. Gavin Newsom has railed against price gouging for hand-sanitizer, while the Trump administration sometimes seems more interested in controlling bad news than dealing forthrightly and coherently with the public.

One result of such messages has been a rollercoaster stock market. Few things are more frightening these days than checking one’s 401(k) account, as a spooked stock market has taken a big hit over the past few weeks. Proposed economic remedies — more federal spending, bailouts of particularly hard-hit industries, lower interest rates — have been slow to calm panicked investors.

Some perspective is in order. Health officials have identified more than 113,000 coronavirus cases worldwide, with 732 in the United States. The illness has caused about 4,000 deaths, 27 in our country. The flu infects 1 billion people each year worldwide, killing as many as 650,000. In the U.S. so far this season, flu afflicted up to 49 million people, resulting in as many as 52,000 deaths. Imagine the level of hysteria that would ensue if people spoke of the flu in the same manner they speak of the coronavirus.

We’re not making light of this outbreak. Unlike the flu, there’s no vaccine yet available and the coronavirus is more transmissible than the flu. Given what we know so far, it’s sensible for people to take greater precautions than usual.

For the ordinary person, the best advice is to stay calm, take reasonable precautions and let the health authorities figure out a proper medical response.