Awfulizing and Covid-19

Awfulizing is the process of blowing things out of proportion into something more than they actually are.  With regard to Covid-19 things are are significantly bad and this can lead to awfulizing quite readily.

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were driving over to her sister's house to deliver a product that they in turn were going to deliver to their mom.  In the process we stopped at an intersection where someone was asking for money.  This guy looked in pretty rough shape as if he had been on the street for quite some time.  My wife was in the driver seat and I asked her about us giving this guy some money.  Traffic was pretty sparse because many people were already staying at home for the most part.  We agreed to give him $5 and motioned him over to the car.

The guy was quite thankful to get anything and was even wearing blue nitrile gloves (actually quite a good idea under the circumstances).  After we gave him the money he asked us if we thought this was the end of the world.  He said his mother thought so, and he was thinking it might be true.  We told him we actually thought things were going to be pretty rough for a couple of months, but that we didn't think it was the end of mankind.  He thanked us again and moved back to his spot on the corner as we drove on.

Just a few days ago I said to my wife something about the whole world falling apart.  It's not, but that's the way I was feeling about it just like the man we had encountered on the road.

Many, if not all of us, tend to focus on the bad and blow it up to be even bigger, worse, and more catastrophic than it really is (awfulize).  World Ends! Film at 11. 

The deaths in this pandemic are definitely a tragedy, but is what is happening catastrophic.  By comparison there were 50 to 60 million deaths due to the Spanish Flu a hundred years ago.  Yet, just a couple of years ago how many people even knew that it had happened.  The answer is few.  It killed more people than WWI  (flu 50-60 million versus WWI 40 million) but it was essentially never mentioned outside of medical papers.

Every year the regular flu kills 300,000 to 700,000 world wide.  Right now Covid-19 is responsible for around 45,000 deaths.  Unfortunately it has the potential for being quite bad and needs to be taken quite seriously.  We are doing many of the right things to try to keep these numbers down, but will we be successful?  We will see.  However in the mean time there will be tragic situations and people lost who are dear to us.