handsomechad

It seems like most people I chat with on a day-to-day basis blithely brush off the risks or worry associated with coronavirus. I myself am not the alarmist or prepper type, but what I see in the real world (big metro city with multiple cases confiremed nearby) is starkly different from the attitude I see espoused here and on twitter, which is that we may be in for a black swan event that could get worse before it gets better.

I hear a lot of "it's just the flu...", "it's just the media"... etc.

What accounts for this difference, and who is more in touch with reality? It is the case that I don't work in tech any more, so maybe tech-centric communities err more on the "expect the worst" side. But that begs the question of why?