Wednesday, March 18, 2020

If you live in the moment, you don't understand what all the COVID-19 fuss is about.


According to news reports, people under 30 in Berlin, Paris and Barcelona are flocking to bars and restaurants when they should be staying home to avoid spreading COVID-19. (Pancevski, Meichtry, & Fontdegloria, 2020)  

New Yorkers have been as well, so all these cities have been forced to close bars and restaurants to save people from themselves.

Reports also say that 62% of Republicans think that COVID-19 is a hoax.  It could be because they are getting their news from those fonts of misinformation -- Fox News and President Trump.  I guess they didn't read my blog about how watching Fox News can kill you.  Here's the link... http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2020/01/watching-fox-news-could-kill-you.html

But the truth is it's not ignorance that drives these people.  It's lack of imagination.

Myers-Briggs personality profiling indicates that 70% of the population lives in the present tense.  That means they only react to what they see going on around them in the moment, and can't project what will happen down the road.  And what these people are seeing right now is nothing.  No one they know is sick, so it must not be true.  Only old people die so it must be safe for them.  Just a bunch of hype.

Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.  Italy is on track to have more deaths than China.  Think about that.  A country with a population of 60.5 million will have more fatalities than one with 1.4 billion people. 

And thanks to Donald Trump our country of 300 million is 6-8 weeks away from testing.  Current projections are that the hospitals will be overwhelmed by next Monday, March 23.  At that point, the results of our failures will start to become visible.  And then, those 70% that live in the moment will freak out because they will suddenly see what all the fuss is about. 

Wash your hands and stand by.  It's going to be a bumpy ride. 


Pancevski, B., Meichtry, S., & Fontdegloria, X. (2020, March 17) A Generational War Is Brewing Over Coronavirus.  wsj.com.  Retrieved March 17, 2020, from

Jagannathan, M. (2020, March 10)  Republicans are far more likely than Democrats to think the coronavirus threat is ‘exaggerated,’ new survey finds.  marketwatch.com.  Retrieved March 17, 2020, from  https://www.marketwatch.com/story/republicans-are-far-more-likely-than-democrats-to-think-the-coronavirus-threat-is-exaggerated-new-survey-finds-2020-03-10

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