“We don’t fear the virus. We fear the loss.”

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

A few people have now asked me why other people panic. It seems bizarre to them that anyone would worry about getting the flu especially if they are not in the at-risk group.

To them, the measures being taken to stop the virus from spreading seem over the top. Why risk the whole economy to prevent everyone from getting an illness they most certainly will be getting anyway?

I don’t pretend to have the medical or scientific knowledge necessary to explain the logic behind it all.

But what I can explain is people’s emotional reaction to what’s going on in the world.

We can look at it and shame it.

Or we can look at it through the lens of compassion and attachment and see it as a fear response.

Not a fear of a virus.

But a fear of loss.

If you are at home cosying up and resting without having to worry that anyone you love is going to die, then it’s a very different experience to the one of someone who loves someone old, sick or vulnerable very deeply.

You might be more able to relate if you have children and you imagined that they were the ones most at risk. How scared would you feel then? How much would you worry about losing them? What measures would you take to…