This kills far more people than Wuhan coronavirus, but Malaysians don’t seem to care

First alerted by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31-December 2019, the so-called Wuhan coronavirus (scientists call it 2019-nCov) has infected close to 6,000 people and has killed over 132 people (as of noon 29-Jan).

The public is understandably scared, and news channels are providing hourly updates on the matter. Bloomberg actually has a counter that says how many are infected and how many dead.

Making matters worse are the spreading of fake news and bad advices by people who don’t even know what a coronavirus is.

Addressing these require the attention of medical experts, thus taking resources away from what matters the most. Still don’t believe that WhatsApp and Facebook are making the human race more stupid?

And all these panic is stemming from 132 deaths in one month?

Here’s a counterpoint, over the Chinese New Year celebrations week, there were 150 people killed in traffic accidents, within a period of just 10 days.

Let’s review the numbers again in context. Malaysia is a country of 32 million people, and 150 people were killed in 10 days. Every year about 7,000 Malaysians die from road accidents but nobody is panicking about the risk that they have to take every time they drive out?

China is a country of 1.38 billion and out of that, 132 people have been killed by the Wuhan coronavirus. 

Statistically speaking, you are far more likely to die from a road accident than from catching the Wuhan coronavirus. Every time you jump into a car or a motorcycle and get on the road, your risk of dying today goes up by at least 10 times. But for many, wearing face masks seem to take a higher priority than seat belts.

Humans are an illogical species. The people who are clamoring to buy face masks are also the same group of people who refuse to wear their seat belts when they are seated in the rear seat of a car, argues against speed limits, dismisses child seats are an unnecessary expense, gets upset over smoking bans. But to them Wuhan coronavirus is deadlier.

Psychologists call this the Normalization Trap. When people are fed with the same outrageous information often enough, they begin to accept it as the norm. How humans define what is normal and what is not isn't based on logic, and that’s just the nature of how our brains work. But you can however, educate yourself.

Another explanation is that because the act of driving requires a direct and physical action on our part, we feel in control.

“I am a good driver,” says 90 percent of drivers (get the joke?). Psychologists call it Superiority Bias, meaning to say too many people think too highly of themselves. Superiority Bias is more common in males and unsurprisingly, there’s a correlation to why road fatalities are overwhelmingly male (87 percent for Malaysia).

So the next time you jump into a car with someone and they tell about you his/her concern about the coronavirus, tell them to relax. Instead, they should make sure that everyone, especially those seated behind are buckled up, and watch the vehicle’s speed. And please get rid of those ornaments in the dashboard, because airbags deploy at 200 km/h. If the impact doesn't kill you, that model car, or even that religious ornament could permanently disfigure you. 

We are worrying too much and doing too many things to prevent what is at best a very remote health hazard, but doing too little to prevent the biggest health hazard of our time, one that we face every day.