That twitter feed you posted had an interesting article about how, as humans, we deal with threats like this. I thought it was very good.
http://psandman.com/col/Corona12.htm
Excerpt:
Strange COVID-19 Bedfellows:
Gnawing Anxiety and Under-Reaction
by Peter M. Sandman and Jody Lanard
We relatively normal people are caught in a battle between our gut and our brain.
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.... The vast majority of experts now expect at least a few very bad months, and maybe a couple of very bad years....
But we’re not 100% rational. Part of our brain just can’t help slightly doubting the wisdom of extreme pandemic precautions. This part of our brain has second thoughts when scoffers look at us like we’re nuts. We don’t want to be wrong about the looming disaster (even though we pray some miracle will stop the pandemic), but we also don’t want to be seen as weirdos. We start to understand the loneliness and alienation that Cassandra and Chicken Little must have felt....
”But we’re not 100% rational. Part of our brain just can’t help slightly doubting the wisdom of extreme pandemic precautions”
I’d like to give some credit to Brain, here. Haven’t we all experienced dire predictions that haven’t come to pass? There is such a thing as healthy skepticism.
And my “gut” is sometimes wrong, too.
We have to really evaluate things.