Why are you denying the spread and severe impact of this virus? Do you think they quarantined the whole fucking country for fun?

I am not denying that. I am simply worried when I see alarmist posts, uncorborated, that have the tendency to spread panic.

That's why call out every twitter thread like that when I come accross them. In this case it was a guy you referenced a friend of his. So uncorborated. Bad reporting, plain and simple.

What you are doing is very dangerous. People need to be aware of what is about to hit them so that they can prepare. Calling into question second-hand reports as "unreliable", even though this particular twitter thread is completely unremarkable and in line with many other reports, makes people wonder if this whole Corona thing is nothing more than hot air. It's just super irresponsible to give people that impression.

News is basically just about Coronavirus by now, whether it is print, online, TV, radio... People are aware, unless you are living in a bunker since last smmer, in which case you would be safe anyway.

If people refuse to take it seriously, no amount of reporting will change these individuals behaviour. What it does so, is causing overreaction of others which can have kind of side effects. Ranging from funny to plain dangerous.

Did you read what was in the original Twitter thread? Hospitals at 200%, people who need intensive care that aren't even looked at, staff who get sick and are otherwise completely overworked...

I'm not sure if you can overreact to that, to be honest.

But people in countries that aren't at that stage yet think it won't be so bad there. Because it's all fake and second-hand information, not well sourced, and therefore probably not true and so we shouldn't overreact. Wrong! You should take precautions now, while you still can.

Because what is described in the thread fits completely with an exponentially growing disease that everyone seemingly gets at once and thus completely overwhelms the hospitals. You shouldn't try to shush people who point that out.

You can absolutely overreact to that. People will get sick and die, yes, but it's also not worth sitting down make parts of the economy and falling into panic.

This will get much worse, but it's still worth maintaining some perspective.

If what the accounts say so far is true, most people aren't ready to accept what maintaining some perspective means or lack some serious virtue.

Even if you yourself aren't vulnerable, you're potentially screwing up people's lives. Not just vulnerable elders, but also doctors who, for better or worse, are unconsciously taken advantage of by requesting them to overwork themselves in poor conditions. The alternatives to not having them overwork are coordinated efforts (which increases contamination, and requires serious coordination that hasn't been shown in Italy yet if the stories are to be believed) or simply leaving people to die. How many people do you think truly understand the consequence of their actions and would willingly continue to do so with full knowledge?

And for what? Some abstract concept called "economy" that 90%* likely won't feel a thing of? Isn't it at least a little ironic that we aren't allowed to panic about corona, but are allowed to panic about anything potentially affecting the economy 'negatively', which just as many people don't know anything about, including tons of self-proclaimed experts?

* Disclaimer: This statistic is indeed picked randomly.

What's dangerous is our government is severely downplaying it and undertesting to make the numbers look good, and we have to rely on social media to find the truth.

I feel like a wingnut even writing that. My opinion would change except lots of health experts and all the smartest people I've talked to on this seem to agree.