I had to cancel my trip to Israel on Monday. There is panic over there.
I’m living in a hick town in Gush Etzion, and haven’t noticed any panic per se. Of course around Ben Gurion International, that would be understandable.
There’s a bit of hysteria in the media. There is an obvious risk of this thing getting worse but it is very early. The stock market is in a panic because investors fear either that the fear of a wider outbreak or a spike in known infections is going to slow world trade. If I had to travel on a plane, I would be a little worried but it appears the airline industry employees aren’t taking too many precautions, they aren’t demanding any federal action and if anyone would be most at risk it would be them. I lost my fear of flying in turbulence one day on a plane that was violently bouncing around the sky, I looked over across the aisle and saw a pilot dead-heading his way home and he was fast asleep while the rest of us were gripping our armrests. I realized if a pilot wasn’t afraid of that turbulence then I had no reason to either. So I’ll panic when the airline/airport employees start panicking.
I don’t think we should over-react at this point but if we had to the solution would not be too hard. It would be tough, but we simply have to shut things down for a couple of weeks and let the virus die off on its own.