So I started to notice an international problem around 20 February (I made an online purchase for my work). Clearly my quantitative skills are underdeveloped because I did not for see the total incapability of my country. That doesn’t mean I haven’t made some really good decisions, because some are spot on.
When I reflect on went great thus far, is it the sources of information. These were spot on. What went less great is the anticipation of the impact the virus has on my country and total media hysteria. Most people are going bonkers insane.
I think in some part we can thank Hollywood with their ‘end of the world movies’, their daily shows (satire news shows), it worked America, thank you for your video streaming services. You have officially psychologically manipulated big parts of the world.
The people whom actually take medical advice from social media (non verified accounts), come on! I get it that you maybe have some trust issues with some media outlets (WHO is not a media outlet).
Most people see the current semi-lock down (NL) as a vacation and take it as much. That is no problem, but keeping a decent distance seems to be pretty difficult. Unless the government are going to give (serious) fines, people will never learn. Because advising people or something of that nature helps only so much. Giving people actual consequences, monetary mainly, people will take that serious and read the necessary information next time.
Also I’m literally baffled by supply side of the everything actually. Big and small companies promote AI, analytics and predictive systems. How on earth have large supermarket chains with large budgets missed this boat/titanic. Because supermarkets are seriously struggling, even the large ones. Hospitals have enormous capacity and material supply problems. To me it looks like we are not ready at all. How do I mean? Experts in this field are saying that this virus is light weight and that future viruses are a far more serious problem.
So what are my lessons? My hygiene game has seriously improved (it was not bad but it got way more professional), so that is good. I’m actually going to read up on infectious diseases (I already have a pretty decent reading list. Thereby I’m not necessarily the fastest reader).
Like a dear colleague of mine told me; “things happen and we merely here to ride the waves”. Take care people.