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Sharkawy: Mass panic may be worse than the coronavirus itself

Photo by Lars Hagberg of The Canadian Press via The Associated Press / Passengers step off a plane carrying Canadians back from the Wuhan province in China, after it arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario on Feb. 11, 2020.
Photo by Lars Hagberg of The Canadian Press via The Associated Press / Passengers step off a plane carrying Canadians back from the Wuhan province in China, after it arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario on Feb. 11, 2020. Photo by Lars Hagberg of The Canadian Press via The Associated Press / Passengers step off a plane carrying Canadians back from the Wuhan province in China, after it arrived at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Trenton, Ontario on Feb. 11, 2020.

By Dr. Abdu Sharkawy / Tribune Content Agency 3 min read

The coronavirus is here. But fear not.

Mass panic is also here. Fear.

I’m a doctor and an infectious diseases specialist. I’ve been at this for more than 20 years seeing sick patients on a daily basis. I have worked in inner city hospitals and in the poorest slums of Africa.

HIV-AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, SARS, measles, shingles, whooping cough, diphtheria … there is little I haven’t been exposed to in my profession. And with notable exception of SARS, very little has left me feeling vulnerable, overwhelmed or downright scared.

I am not scared of COVID-19. I am concerned about the implications of a novel infectious agent that has spread the world over and continues to find new footholds in different soil. I am rightly concerned for the welfare of those who are elderly, in frail health or disenfranchised who stand to suffer mostly, and disproportionately, at the hands of this new scourge. But I am not scared of COVID-19.