I spoke to my brother the other day. He is a doctor in Kentucky. He’s a neurologist to be exact (kind of like the “dentist” of doctors) He works in a clinic associated with a hospital.
I asked him how things were going. We talk monthly. His daughter just got certified to be a rescue ranger on Mt. Denali in Alaska. His wife has been having a hard time adjusting to their move to Kentucky. The first thing he said to me was, “We’re good. The panic is worse than the disease.”
I didn’t ask him about the virus. We talk monthly. We both have bigger things going on in our personal lives…he must have assumed. Yet, that was his lead.
I asked him, “How do you separate the panic from the disease?” I wanted to know what he thought the “panic” was. Did he really think people were still panicking about the virus? I mean, sure, lots of people are panicking about the virus, but does he really believe THAT is what the panic is about?
I told him to let me know when to panic. When the market hits 17,000? 15,000? When 4 out of 6 members of my family are out of work? (That was a trick question. 4 out of 6 of us are out of work) When my wife, who has asthma, gets infected?
The panic is worse than the disease.
The bullet is worse than the gun.
Just to be clear, the “panic” is the bullet in this scenario.
I’m not panicked, it’s not in my nature. I’m one of those idiots who stays calm and rallies the troops.
When I spoke to my brother 2 days ago, Kentucky had…zero reported cases. Today they have 103 confirmed cases and 3 dead.
I’ll leave it to you and a neurologist from Kentucky to tell me when to panic. Oh, and the stock market is at 18,500.