I’ve spent quite some time this week cancelling events, including this week’s SWE colloquium, an event about the use of social media for professional purposes “Let social media find your future job”, this year’s edition of the Bernoulli workshop, as well as a number of in-person lectures and seminars. This sucks! But it’s the right thing to do.

The corona epidemic is on the rise, with doubling of confirmed cases every few days (4!) in Switzerland and many other European countries, including, Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal (hi, Mom!).

According to Richard Neher, virologist professor at Uni Basel, in the worst-case-scenario, the Swiss medical system can become overburden quickly (end of April). This would have implications not only for corona patients but the whole health system and, therefore, society as a whole – we don’t want to be in the yellowish scenario depicted below…

So, what can a single individual do? Here’s my current top 3…

1. Stay safe: There are a number of behaviors we should be adopting (maintaining hygiene, social distancing) – cancelling stuff is just the price we pay for being on the safe side.
2. Stay informed: Our World in Data provides a comprehensive list of data resources concerning the corona epidemic that is worth checking out. And while this may not do much per se, seeing some numbers and graphs can give one (me!) a sense of control that is helpful in the face of great uncertainty.
3. Stay positive: It’s important to find a balance between being paralysed by the fear of a worst-case-scenario and dismissive about the whole thing. The right attitude is a mix of optimism and reasonable concern. Just hope for the best while preparing for the worst!