Where is the evidence for the coronavirus panic?

This article written by Roger W. Koops for the American Institute for Economic Research says that there is no extraordinary evidence that points to the apocalyptic nature of the coronavirus. Nothing we know about the virus has warranted the kind of panic it has ensued.

Koops begins his article by looking at the time before all the panic, and cites the important discovery of the European CDC which shows that the pandemic could have started as early as October 2019. This reality, he says is significant beyond words. He adds, if COVID-19 was truly an apocalyptic disease, we would already have noticed it early on.

Koops reminds us how various countries and organizations treated the new coronavirus as something like the influenza – there were no calls for masks and social distancing. The turning point was in March, when the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Koops asks an important question: when the WHO declared the pandemic, did anything change in the nature of COVID-19? He states the fear messaging connected to the pandemic was deliberate to create a state of panic and to rationalize the “horrific policies” that were about to be unleashed to society.

Now four months into the pandemic, Koops says that there is no evidence for the panic. And since there is no extraordinary evidence to explain the panic, why are there extraordinary claims and responses?

Editor’s Note: This article is a great reminder for how our life used to be like before the pandemic. It also mirrors back some of our unsubstantiated beliefs about the coronavirus, and it helps us be objective in our assessment of its real risk.

All of the claims made by Koops in this article can be easily confirmed, but his analysis of the situation will provide us with a lens with which we can view the response of the general public regarding the coronavirus, and the government policies created to respond to the “threat”.