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'Strange COVID-19 Bedfellows: Gnawing Anxiety and Under-Reaction'

In recent days several other friends have expressed a lot of anxiety to us about COVID-19, but then mentioned almost in passing that they were taking a trip to Florida next week to visit grandchildren, or going into New York City by train for a dinner date, or excited about a planned week in Hawaii, or attending a business meeting in Michigan. They mostly dropped these trips into the conversation without connecting them to the part of the conversation about COVID-19.

We think their anxiety about COVID-19 was in one place and their cognitive understanding of COVID-19 was in another.

So we want to talk about these strange COVID-19 bedfellows: gnawing anxiety and under-reaction.

People you know are probably experiencing exactly this contradiction as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic together:

On the one hand, they feel a gnawing anxiety in the pit of their stomachs that just won’t go away.

On the other hand, they haven’t changed their daily lives much yet, or even planned much for the life changes that they sort-of suspect are just around the corner.

This is true of many people we know, including people who have spent decades preparing professionally for this unprecedented moment.

What’s going on? And what can be done about it? Here is a tentative answer.

1. Just about everybody is feeling the anxiety – perhaps even the naysayers like Dr. Marc Siegel, whose anxiety leaks out around his scoffing.

2. Just about everybody wonders if they’re overreacting – except the “preppers” who have been predicting this moment for years.

3. As a result of #1 and #2, just about everybody is a bit frozen in place with self-doubt.

4. The self-doubt and the frozen-in-place feeling are exacerbated by conflicting messages from government and media.

5. They’re also exacerbated by our totally understandable fear of being mocked as alarmist.

6. The not-very-satisfying solution: We have to bear it all – not just the pandemic itself, not just the anxiety, but also the self-doubt, the mixed messages, and the fear of being mocked. In spite of it all, we have to do what we can to protect ourselves and get ready, and to help our loved ones, neighbors, and communities protect themselves and get ready. And officials have to do what they can to help.

Our gut “knows” that we’re almost certainly facing a pandemic severe enough to disrupt our normal lives.

If we were 100% rational, our brain would know it too. “Star Trek’s” Mr. Spock would find the evidence persuasive that the COVID-19 threat is bad and rapidly getting worse. Mr. Spock would instantly understand COVID-19’s short doubling time – why one week nothing much was happening in northern Italy and a week later it was as if a Category 5 hurricane had hit them. Sure, the pandemic might fizzle; the virus might mutate into a milder strain; a miracle cure or vaccine might get invented overnight; the world could get lucky. But those are long shots. The vast majority of experts now expect at least a few very bad months, and maybe a couple of very bad years.

Thirteen sick crew with COVID-19 symptoms evacuated from cruise ships to Miami hospitals
By Taylor Dolven
March 26, 2020 11:08 AM

Sick crew members with COVID-19 symptoms evacuated from two cruise ships to the U.S. Coast Guard Base Miami Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2020. The Costa Favolosa and the Costa Magica ships each have about 1,000 crew on board. By Al Diaz

Thirteen crew members in need of life-critical care from two cruise ships were evacuated to local hospitals in Miami Thursday with COVID-19 symptoms.

The ships — Costa Magica and Costa Favolosa — lingered three miles offshore as lifeboats transported sick people to the U.S. Coast Guard station adjacent to PortMiami. Decked in hazmat suits, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers helped the people off of lifeboats and into ambulances.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/tourism-cruises/article241523751.html