 |
| Fear? Who, Me? |
I began talking about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with my students this past January as news of what was unfolding in Wuhan, China emerged in newspapers. I noted the many table-top exercises I had read about in which very knowledgable people in those simulations made poor decisions or confronted major gaps in preparedness. I also noted the macabre decisions that were made, for example, in aftermath of an attack from a bioweapon, and how ill-prepared our health systems were for the 2003 SARS-CoV-1 event which killed less than a thousand people around the world.
However, I also told students that one of the things I personally worried most about in the context of pandemic or bioweapon responses was them; not their personal health and safety, but their collective responses to what was going on.
I shouldn't be surprised at the level of fear this has all generated, but I am.
