So often we are afraid of the wrong things, because our sense of fear comes from media distortions. This crisis is a case in point: Anecdotally I have heard many neighbors and friends who are terrified of getting the coronavirus. They are under the impression that it is a death sentence. I get it, the media spends all day every day counting the bodies, and that has an impact. Perhaps some perspective will help.
My profession has been number crunching for a long time, and those of us who have been around as long as I have understand both the value and the problems with mathematical prediction models. The first thing to realize with models is that whatever answer they give, it is guaranteed to be wrong. This is a given. Real life never follows the model exactly, so being absolutely correct is not even a question. The question is, how wrong is the model?
