Who’s afraid of the big bad virus?

Writer: Elaine Davie.

Although the Coronavirus or COVID-19 was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019, in the past couple of months it has spread at an escalating tempo to between 80 and 90 countries around the world. While, at first, the World Health Organisation (WHO) was reluctant to label it a pandemic, it has now done so. And with every passing day, as the number of infections climbed, the level of panic, fanned by social media and misleading information, took on increasingly hysterical proportions.

However, we need to keep things in perspective. While it is undoubtedly a highly infectious strain of influenza, it is not a biblical plague. In fact, medical experts seem to agree that it is not, at this stage, as virulent as previous respiratory epidemics such as SARS or MERS; or, indeed, ebola or tuberculosis – even plain old everyday flu. Actually, the mortality rate of COVID -19 is comparatively low. By the end of last week over 100 000 cases had been confirmed worldwide, but only about 3 500 patients had died and these were mostly from amongst particularly vulnerable groups, like the elderly or patients with existing medical conditions, who succumbed to a resistant form of pneumonia.

Another reality check: At the time of going to press, seven people in South Africa had been confirmed as positive. That’s seven positive – not dead – out of a population of over 50 million South Africans. (And how many people are murdered in this country every day, or killed on the roads?)

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