The Coronavirus Conumdrum

I haven’t posted about the Coronavirus yet.

The big story here at the Fortress of Ineptitude is that my wife Andrea cannot pronounce it.

She keeps calling it the “KER-NOR-RER-virus” despite my best efforts to Henry Higgins her to a proper pronunciation.

More accurately, I sound like a Judoon from Doctor Who.

Andrea: Kernorrervirus!

ME: KO! RO! NAH!

Andrea: Colonel…..

ME: KO! RO! NAH!

Andrea: Kernel?  

Me: KO!

Andrea: KAH!

Me: KO!

Andrea: KO?

Me: Yes, KO!

Andrea: KO! NOR!

Me: KO! NO!

And so forth and so on.

Look, if this thing is coming to kill us, pronouncing it correctly will not likely save our lives.

Doctor: I’m sorry, sir, but your wife is dead. From the coronavirus. If only we could’ve caught it earlier.

Me: No! How could this happen?

Doctor: Well, she kept calling it “kernorrervirus” which kind of threw us off.

Me: Dammit!

But is the coronavirus coming to kill us?

Well, maybe.

Look, there are a lot of people sick and dying around the world. It started off in China but this is no longer a Chinese thing as cases of coronavirus have cropped up elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America. 

Here’s the thing. As bad as this is, the likelihood of you contracting and dying from the coronavirus are mathematically slim. But somebody’s making up the numbers of those who are sick and dying and yes, it could be you.

Remember when everyone was scared of SARS? Now, do you know of anyone personally who got sick and or died of SARS?

And what about the big Ebola scare? There’s a very good chance that whatever random person reads this post from anywhere in the world even knows of someone who had Ebola.

But that does not diminish for a second that lots of people did die.

But there are those in this world where that does diminish that impact.  There are a lot of insulated, stupid people who have the view that if it isn’t happening to them, it’s not a big deal.

That’s what Donald Trump is counting on.

He’s got an entire base of supporters who do not give a rats ass about anyone sick in China, South Korea, Japan, Italy or wherever.   

Here’s the math on this. On a worldwide scale, let’s say ½ million people die from the coronavirus. Let’s say in the United States, the virus kills maybe a hundred people tops.

100 vs. 500,000. Well, it could’ve been worse, Trump declares victory and his base praises his leadership in keeping the death count low.

Trump has openly made this calculus before. Remember after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and the initial death count in the first few days was low. Trump compared it to the higher death toll after Hurricane Katrina and declared it a victory. 

So efforts to educate the American public on the hazards of the coronavirus and what can be done to curb its spread get pushed back by Trump with lies and denials. 

Trump who is President of Only the Part of the United States That Voted For Him doesn’t see this as a problem.

The news of the coronavirus is what irks him as he accuses the media of needlessly spreading bad news that’s depressing the stock market.

Not human lives but the indices of Wall Street, that’s where Trump’s concerns lay. 

Indeed, the right wing blogosphere is already hard at work on cultivating a conspiracy that this whole coronavirus thing is just a liberal plot to hurt Donald Trump's re-election.

And Trump's buying into it.

And he’s counting on his base getting through this with “well, no one I know had this ‘kernorrervirus’. Just another liberal fake news thing!”

But it is a real thing, even if no one you know gets it or if you can't pronounce it. 

Remember to be good to one another and stay safe.