“Have you got a face mask yet?,” a woman asked me at an event in Singapore last night. 

“No I haven’t,” I replied. And I have no intention of doing so, I thought to myself. 

“But with all the flying you do, wouldn’t you want to protect yourself?”

“Of course,” I said. “I eat well, exercise often and am very intentional about maintaining a strong immune system,” I explained. Then politely excused myself to go to the bathroom. 

It’s true. I do travel a lot. In fact tomorrow morning I will board a flight from Singapore to San Francisco and then on to San Antonio. Over the course of the next week I’ll be on six flights, spending many hours in close proximity to people I don’t know.

Not lining up to purchase a face mask isn’t because I don’t think coronavirus can cause people to die. But rather because I don’t think I’m at risk of being one of them.  And as health experts have stated, face masks are generally unnecessary unless you are already unwell or working with those who are. In fact, wearing the wrong one, the wrong way, can actually put you at more risk of getting sick.

Wuhan flu, being referred to as coronavirus, is fuelling our newsfeeds right now. In fact the same person who asked me if I had a mask went on to share that she’d heard Singapore would soon be stocking out of them and, “by the way, have you heard the rumour about this virus being deliberately manufactured as a weapon.”

What rubbish. Fear mongering at its core. 

But it just goes to show that fear is contagious and feeds on itself. More so, in today’s over-wired world, fear based fake news can spread far faster than any virus ever can.  

If you’ve been wondering whether or not you need to be cancelling your trip to Bali (or Singapore!) and stocking up on canned beans, consider a few facts to put your fears into their rightful perspective (since fear, by default, tends to make us lose it.)

According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, over 60,000 people die of flu or flu-like illnesses every year (that’s 168 deaths per day!). Those most likely to die from Wuhan fit the same profile as flu fatalities: people over 65, those with compromised immune systems and those with pre-existing conditions.  All those in the US, Singapore and other countries being treated for the virus are showing positive responses. So unlike SARS which had around a 10% fatality rate, Wuhan virus (one of the coronavirus from the same family as SARS) is showing only about 3% fatality rate. So while it may be spreading easier, it’s far less fatal if you get it. And chances are, unless you’ve been to China recently or work with those who have, you won’t.

But let’s zoom up again. 

According to the CDC, every year in the United States, approximately 650,000 people die of heart disease, 600,000 die from cancer, about 170,000 die from accidents, 160,000 from chronic respiratory diseases and nearly 150,000 from stroke, and about 85,000 (to round up) from diabetes and nearly 40,000 die from gun deaths (of which about 60% are suicide.)

As Amira Roess, PhD, MPH is a professor of global health and epidemiology at George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services stated,

“For the average American, your risk is actually quite low. If you haven’t already gotten the flu shot, go ahead and get it. As we’ve seen with previous outbreaks like the H1N1 or the swine flu, the influenza – the regular seasonal flu – actually causes more illness and more deaths than those strains of flu.” 

So if you’re going to be afraid of something, there are a whole raft of potential dangers that put your health at risk that should rank well above Wuhan virus. Beginning with the stress you put on your heart by getting stressed out about low-grade threats, not eating foods that boost your immune system or failing to take proper care of your mental, physical and emotional health. 

Of course, as human beings we are psychologically wired to play it safe, alert to potential threats to our safety, survival and security (physical as well as mental and emotional). Our brains are programmed to focus more on what we could lose than on what we could gain; more on what could go wrong versus what might go right.

So it’s only natural that when our headlines start bombarding us with the threat of a “killer virus”, global pandemics and health emergencies that our imaginations conjure up worst case scenarios and we start scampering for safety or lining up for face masks.   And for those hungry to infuse some excitement into their lives (or, for media outlets, into their headlines) or anxious souls always waiting for the sky to fall in, this is the perfect opportunity to jump on the high-drama bandwagon.  Yet when fear goes viral it can keep us from taking the very actions that would ultimately serve our wellbeing.

This all said, it is still entirely reasonable that Governments, health authorities and companies take precautionary measures to safeguard their citizens and employees and avoid further spread of a pathogen that experts are yet to fully understand.  The decision of many airlines to cancel flights to China in the short term is a reasonable response. It’s also hard not to be impressed by the Chinese Government’s ability to construct two hospitals within 10 days. Likewise, when I board my long haul flight from Singapore to San Francisco tomorrow morning, I’m sure United Airlines will have measures in place to ensure no one with a fever or who has visited China recently will be getting on board.  All good by me. 

But let’s not fuel the fear that’s already running amok and get pulled into a state of hyper-anxiety that will only undermine our immune system’s ability to ward of bugs and viruses of every type.

“Keep Calm and Carry On” are words plastered onto the side of a random coffee mug that somehow made its way onto my kitchen shelf. 

And that’s exactly what I intend to do. 

I encourage you to do the same. You’ll be healthier for it. We all will.

FORBES

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