Paniek se knoppies

In ons al woeliger wêreld het wisselende grade van paniek 'n ongelukkige en soms ontstemmende werklikheid geword.Die mens se paniekknoppies word op allerhande wyses al vinniger gedruk. Deur kwessies in ons eie, dol leefruimtes en inligting van oraloor die aardbol – wat nie altyd korrek is of in perspektief gestel is nie.Die VSA se hommeltuigaanval in Irak kort ná Nuwejaar het talle laat ineenkrimp met die angs dat die planeet op die rand van 'n Derde Wêreldoorlog en die Bybel se laaste groot veldslag huiwer. Gelukkig het genoegsame teenwigte die vrede help bewaar.Oor die coronavirus wat reeds vanuit China na verskeie wêrelddele versprei het, word op sosiale media platforms talle verregaande stellings gemaak. Van dit aangedryf deur xenofobiese haat vir alles uit die Ooste.Sulke wanvoorstellings is onregverdig en gevaarlik.Namibië is op gereedheidsgrondslag geplaas om gevalle te hanteer – en selfs al is ons openbare gesondheidstelsel in baie opsigte gebrekkig, het aangewese owerhede die afgelope 30 jaar alle siekte-uitbrekings uitstekend bestuur. Ons het nie rede om nou iets anders te verwag nie.In The New York Times betoog skrywer David Quammen (sien uittreksel onder) hoekom die totale mensdom verantwoordelik vir sulke nuwe epidemies is. Lees gerus sy volledige mening aanlyn – dis die moeite werd.Ja, die virus kan baie groot amok veroorsaak, maar die sterftekoers is byvoorbeeld tans net 3%.Paraat en sorgsaam moet ons altyd wees. Maar wees bewustelik versigtig vir die paniekknoppie. So sê ander28 Januarie 2020 We Made the Coronavirus Epidemic The latest scary new virus that has captured the world's horrified attention is known provisionally as “nCoV-2019.”The name is short for “novel coronavirus of 2019.” Despite the new virus's name, though, nCoV-2019 isn't as novel as you might think.Something very much like it was found several years ago in a cave in Yunnan by a team of researchers who noted its existence with concern.This Wuhan emergency is no novel event. It's part of a sequence of related contingencies that stretches back into the past and will stretch forward into the future, as long as current circumstances persist.Current circumstances include a perilous trade in wildlife for food. Current circumstances also include 7.6 billion hungry humans: some of them impoverished and desperate for protein.No large-bodied animal has ever been nearly so abundant as humans are now, let alone so effective at arrogating resources. We disrupt ecosystems, and we shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. When that happens, they need a new host. Often, we are it.We are faced with two mortal challenges. Short term: We must do everything we can, with intelligence, calm and a full commitment of resources, to contain and extinguish this nCoV-2019 outbreak before it becomes, as it could, a devastating global pandemic. Long term: We must remember, when the dust settles, that nCoV-2019 was not a novel event or a misfortune that befell us. It was — it is — part of a pattern of choices that we humans are making.• David Quammen (THE NEW YORK TIMES)

Paniek se knoppies

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