More perspective on the coronavirus

Consider that during the current year, as of writing this (ie. we are a bit over 2 months into the year), according to statistics there have been approximately:

• 92 thousand deaths caused by the seasonal flu
• 320 thousand deaths caused by HIV/AIDS
• 186 thousand deaths caused by malaria
• 1.5 million deaths caused by cancer
• 8 million abortions
• 204 thousand suicides
• 475 thousand deaths caused by alcohol
• 951 thousand deaths caused by smoking
• 256 thousand deaths caused by traffic accidents
• 4 thousand deaths caused by the coronavirus

Yet it's the coronavirus that has effectively halted the world, caused widespread panic, put several countries in lockdown, plummeted stocks, and driven several companies to the brink of bankruptcy.

Yes, the coronavirus has the potential to become exponentially infectious and cause exponentially more deaths than it has so far. However, even in the worst possible scenario (it becomes as widespread as highly contagious diseases like influenza), it will still kill less people than most of those other things.

But oh no, it's the coronavirus we should be worried about, and go into absolute panic mode!

I'm not saying it shouldn't be taken seriously. What I am saying is that people shouldn't go into panic mode because of this one particular virus. There are many other things in this world that are killing more people than the virus ever will (even in the absolute worst case scenario), and the world doesn't go into lockdown because of those. It's useless to go into lockdown because of one thing among dozens (especially given that this one thing isn't even going to kill as many people as those other things).