Published

How did people in my community and around the world get to the point of hysteria over a pandemic with a clear age-stratified and comorbidity-amplified mortality? Why were young and healthy people with very little risk for disease and death treated as if they were a grave danger to others? Was it because people in the U.S. and other wealthy, developed nations had no idea about the real risks of infection, the benefits of protective immunity, or our constant bombardment with microbes, including respiratory viruses? Was the mass panic I was seeing in my neighbors a phenomenon of group psychology just as contagious as a pandemic virus? Why did I not follow the mob of social media, public opinion, and other prominent scientists? Why did I bother trying calm people, which in hindsight, was as pointless as trying to completely stop the virus? The answers involve not just the science of infection and immunity, but also a philosophy about germs and the risks that was formed and driven by my own education, background, and experiences.