Overreact

Our response to this virus thing is overblown. We shouldn't panic the way we are. Things are better than they seem. So I've heard folks say.

They are right, I hope.

Some other overreactions:

• Home insurance: chances are very low that my house will burn down. But every year I pay an insurance company to promise to help me out if it does. Annoying.
• Car insurance: there are laws requiring me to pay someone to guarantee that if I run someone over, there will be funds to reimburse that someone (or, worst case, their family). 
• Seat belts: I've never been in an accident serious enough to need a seat belt. But I continue to wear one despite the minor inconvenience.
• Bike helmets: I've never needed one of these either (partly because I was lucky as a kid). But see if my wife agrees that I should go without one.
• Health insurance: Annoying. Well, you get the picture.

Social distancing is a sort of insurance policy. It's inconvenient. It's less fun than hanging out with friends when we like. It apparently will disrupt our economy in a big way, if the stock market is any indication. So it may be quite expensive insurance. Like normal health insurance.

But imagine you are the health provider who has to decide which of three patients gets the one available ventilator, as some doctors in Italy have had to do. One or both of the unlucky ones die. Then the one you did give the ventilator to also dies. You made the wrong choice.

When you inform the families of the deaths, you tell them there will be no funerals. They should grieve at home, alone.

You could handle that, no problem?

OK, then I suspect you aren't much of a people person. Not getting out shouldn't bother you. Stay home and quit whining.

And if, in the end, we conclude that we overreacted, that's the best result. So, please, overreact!