The World Catches a Dangerous Virus of the Mind
The coronavirus is more than a health menace. It’s a wealth destroyer that the global economy will have to live with for many months to come.
A Feb. 28 notice on the A43 motorway in France reads: “Coronavirus if Symptoms Call 15.”
Photographer: Pierre Teyssot/Maxppp/Zuma Press
The pathogen that emerged in central China last December has spread with remarkable speed to six continents. Scientists are still trying to unlock the secrets of the novel coronavirus, known officially as SARS-CoV-2, but we know this much: It’s highly contagious and mobile, among many things, hitching rides on Asia-bound cruise ships, followers of an obscure South Korean religious sect, and skiers in the French Alps. Given its fatality rate of 2% or so, it’s thankfully not a killing machine like Ebola, which on average takes out about 50% of its victims.
Yet this disease outbreak has the potential to be more than a health menace: SARS-CoV-2 is a virus of the mind, expressing itself differently in the behaviors of economic actors—be they tourists, chief executive officers, or heads of state—as they weigh their risk exposure. It’s disrupting our work lives, vaporizing $6 trillion in global stock market wealth, and setting off negative economic feedback loops that have raised credible fears of a serious global downturn.