How to overcome the irrational fear of contagion

The coronavirus is airborne, both literally and figuratively. It is an airborne pathogen that is occupying all the current news, as well as making it inevitable to talk to family and friends about it.

People tend to exaggerate threats, and this virus has been no exception, especially considering the rather objectionable way in which the news has been reported in the media.

Is this virus that bad? Is it worth the fear that is being generated? How to overcome the irrational fear of contagion? Below we will try to answer these questions, in addition to reflecting on how the coronavirus is affecting the population.

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Overcoming the irrational fear of contagion: what to do?

Since the coronavirus, more appropriately named COVID-19, appeared in the city of Wuhan in December of last year, has been on the front page of all the newspapers and has opened all the newscasts Everyone is aware of the new news about the virus, which is feared to acquire pandemic proportions and that, as is logical, generates a lot of fear in the population.

Not only China, the country with ground zero of the contagion and that has had the most deaths, has registered a significant number of cases. Other Asian countries, such as South Korea or Iran have stated that the number of cases detected in their territory is very high, which has forced the closing of borders with nearby countries and the suspension of various events, such as concerts and political meetings.

but obviously the virus has left the Asian continent and has reached America, Oceania and also Europe. In fact, in Italy it has become a real problem that has led to the cancellation of the famous Venice Carnival festival, while in Spain, more for security reasons than anything else, it has been decided to cancel the Mobile World Congress, with the socioeconomic repercussions that this it implies.

But despite the risk of acquiring the virus, there is only one thing much more contagious than COVID-19: fear. A fear that, based on morbidity and misinformation, has contributed to the fact that, although without reaching collective psychosis, it has generated a social alarm that has triggered certain behaviors that, rather than avoiding acquiring the coronavirus, implies profound damage to the social fabric.

The danger of misinformation

Misinformation, hoaxes and exaggeration are very dangerous. The media, although not all, have treated the news in a tremendous way, selling the news that we are almost on the brink of the apocalypse. This, accompanied by the laziness of many citizens to properly document how the virus affects really about health, has made what was just another stationary virus seen as a condemnation of death.

It should be said that these types of beliefs are not at all surprising if we take into account that, in the 21st century, there are people who really believe that vaccines cause autism. others have various conspiracy beliefs, such as that the virus has been manufactured in a laboratory to reduce the world population. It should be said that these types of ideas are not very original, since there were not a few who believed this when the Ebola, bird flu, swine flu, mad cow disease happened...

It is true that the virus is having medical and economic consequences. The possibility that we may run out of supplies to deal with many infections is real. Many cases would imply an oversaturation of medical resources, and that is what is really scary. But the disease itself is not as serious as it is being portrayed in the media, since its symptoms, mainly fever, cough and respiratory problems, do not differ much from a common flu.

In addition, several experts consider the recovery process from the coronavirus to be very similar to that of the flu. If you are a person with a good immune system, young, without respiratory problems or previous diseases, in case of contracting the virus, it is most likely that you will end up recovering.

What should we do to avoid fear?

The best way to overcome the irrational fear of contagion from this virus is, as we were suggesting previously, to properly document yourself. The media does not necessarily have to be exaggerating the news, but since many want us to we stay glued to the screen to keep up to date with what is happening, it is normal for them to sell something as serious as what they paint.

That is why it is best to watch television responsibly, and counter the information with web pages and other specialized resources in medicine, who are truly knowledgeable about the situation of the virus, its danger and the real risk of being faced with a pandemic. The WHO, the Official College of Physicians and other institutions offer scientific information on the coronavirus.

Another highly recommended thing is to remain calm and be aware of the extent to which we are exposed to the disease. Unless we have recently traveled to Asia, or we know of a positive case of the virus, we are not people with a high probability of having acquired it. We must also be aware of our health and be aware of whether we are a risk group or not. If so, it is advisable to take preventive measures to the extreme, and seek information and advice from our doctor.

We must not change our routine. If we normally go to work with public transport, let's continue to do so. Only in case the authorities of the city or the region say that it is contraindicated to use this transport, or that it is not You should not even leave home or spend depending on what places, we must not stop doing the things we do every day. Let's not let a disease that has not yet affected us prevent us from following a normal life.

Finally, something that is obvious, let's not be afraid of Asian people. Let's not treat them as if they were plagued or potential carriers of the virus. A white person has the same risk of acquiring the virus as a Chinese citizen, let's not feed stigmas.

Some interesting data

So far, about 82,000 cases of coronavirus have been registered worldwide, the vast majority of them in China (about 75,000), with 2,744 deaths in the Asian country. This sounds terrifying. However, why don't we ask ourselves how many people have recovered?

At the moment, the recovery rate is significantly higher than that of deaths, with almost 12,000 people who have had the virus who are fully cured. Most of the people who have died had previous medical problems or have not been able to access health treatment in due time. This type of situation is common in countries whose rural regions do not have good sanitation, something that does not occur in Europe and other developed countries.

The fact that there is no vaccine for COVID-19 does not mean that it is necessarily deadly, since, as we were going commenting before, if you were healthy before acquiring the virus, it is most likely that you will end up overcoming the disease.

But despite these data, the media continues to give too much importance to the bad. This is normal and actually in psychology it has a name: it is the negativity bias. We tend to pay more attention to the bad than to the good and, in this case, we are more concerned with the deaths, which to tell the truth are not that many, than the recovery rate, which is really high. Nor is it emphasized that healthy people have little real chance of dying from the coronavirus.

• You may be interested in: "Negativity bias: what it is and how it influences our thinking"

A lot of coronavirus, but it's not the worst

It is true that there have been several deaths from the coronavirus, but the common flu, the one that comes every year, seems to be more deadly. In the United States, this past flu season has killed 8,000, a number four times greater than that of deaths from coronavirus in China, a country with many more population.

The flu is deadlier when you were in worse health before you got it and if you don't have the resources adequate doctors to deal with it, as it happens with practically any disease, be it contagious or No. Taking this into account, How come we worry so much about the coronavirus instead of the flu, or any other more common disease?

Statistically speaking, the flu should be treated as something more serious, since there are more cases, while the coronavirus, at the moment, has a mortality rate of only 2%. But the media does not cover the news about the flu because, unlike the coronavirus, it is not something new and, of course, it does not arouse as much interest.

• You may be interested in: "The 16 types of fear and their characteristics"

The collective psychosis, stigma and exaggerated precautions

There is no doubt that the virus is affecting the way the population behaves and thinks, reaching the point where there are people who have radically changed their daily lives. Although it is appropriate to take preventive measures, they should not be so exaggerated that it seems that the remedy, or in this case, prevention, is worse than the disease.

As the disease originated in China, it was originally attributed to the consumption of bat meat and later pangolin meat (although the origin of the real virus is still being sought), it has begun to discriminate against Asian citizens, both tourists and immigrants.

In Spain, for example, there are people who have stopped going to Chinese bazaars and restaurants for fear of getting infected. This can be interpreted as a subtle form of racism (microracism) and contribute to the stigma that if you are Chinese you can have the disease. However, thinking about it coldly, how is a Chinese who has been living in Spain for ten years and without going to China going to have coronavirus just like that?

It is logical to think that, having relatives residing in China and who can visit them, they run a certain risk of acquiring the virus. However, this risk is also possible with any European, African, Australian or American who has visited Asia or has been in contact with people suspected of having the virus.

Although in Spain the thing has not reached a social alarm equivalent to a collective psychosis, it is true that there are people who are avoiding taking transport for fear of catching it. There is also buying medical material that is believed to prevent having the disease, as is the case with masks. In fact, in some parts of Spain, as is the case on the island of Menorca, they have sold out in pharmacies, which which contributes in a certain way to feed the fear that at some point in the epidemic the supplies.

However, and taking advantage of the issue of masks, it should be noted that they do little to prevent disease. The real use of this medical material is to prevent, in surgical interventions, surgeons, when they talk to each other, from spitting saliva on the open body of the patient. Since air passes through the fabric of the mask and the coronavirus travels by air, they are not an effective preventive method, although they do prevent, when we sneeze, we throw contaminated saliva at others people. What is recommended is to wash your hands and face frequently, and preferably use disinfectant soaps.

It should also be noted that it is quite curious how people spend money on practically useless masks against a virus with a high probability of recovery, while to deal with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) condoms, which are effective, do not have as much popularity. HIV, gonorrhea or syphilis are more common problems than the coronavirus, preventable, and yet people do not seem to take the proper precautions against these serious diseases.

Bibliographic references:

• World Health Organization. (2020). Questions and answers about the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Recovered from: https://www.who.int/es/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/q-a-coronaviruses