I'm very worried (and in Texas) but when people hear me talk they somehow walk away with "just the flu" anyway. My theory is that people feel cognitive dissonance between the seriousness of the situation and the mild-seeming precautions that are recommended. Cancel nonessential international travel, wash your hands. For most people (talking about the U.S. here) international travel seems extraordinary and optional, if not downright weird, so it's really just wash your hands. It's hard for people to understand that there's a crisis and all they're supposed to do about it is wash their hands, no matter that I say things like "unprecedented mortality and disruption in our lifetime."
Other obstacles to perceiving it as a big deal:
- Not grasping that a fraction of a percent mortality can be a big deal. Numbers under one percent make it sound indistinguishable from flu, even if it's 10x as deadly as flu.
- Having AIDS and Ebola as your mental prototypes for dangerous infectious diseases and feeling relieved when you hear COVID-19 is nothing like either one.
Other obstacles to perceiving it as a big deal:
- Not grasping that a fraction of a percent mortality can be a big deal. Numbers under one percent make it sound indistinguishable from flu, even if it's 10x as deadly as flu.
- Having AIDS and Ebola as your mental prototypes for dangerous infectious diseases and feeling relieved when you hear COVID-19 is nothing like either one.