The SHF and How To Recover From It

What is the SHF, and how do we recover from it and get on with our lives? Glad you asked! First, what is the SHF?

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What is the SHF?

If you haven’t heard of the SHF, it is not surprising, because I just made it up! It stands for the ‘Shit Happens! Factor’ and it refers to bad things that happen that are completely out of our control. Right now, that means the current outbreak of COVID-19, to give it it’s current nickname. You didn’t cause it, I didn’t cause it, yet it is affecting all of our lives at the moment, mostly because of the various government overreactions to what is just another virus.

Yes, I said it out loud, COVID-19 is just another virus, not the end of the world as we know it. One of the few advantages of being old is that I have seen a lot more of the world than the average Milenial, and there have already been five Global Pandemics in the last twenty years alone. Each one was solemnly announced by the mass media as “the end of the world as we know it”, if not “the end of civilization”, yet here we all are, going through it all again!

Before the haters start, I am not belittling the outbreak, or the loss of life, any loss of life is a tragedy, but I am just trying to put a bit of reality into the debate. In 2008 we were hit with the SARS outbreak, then the MERS outbreak, then another SARS outbreak, and now COVID-19, which is just another strain of SARS. Before that we had the Ebola outbreak, and before that there was the HIV epidemic.

But maybe this COVID-19 is more deadly than the previous outbreaks?

Nope. The Global Mortality rate of COVID-19 is estimated at around 2-3%, compared to 32% for MERS, and 40-60% for the SARS outbreaks. So, compared to its bigger brothers, this is just a mild case of SARS.

But maybe it is more contagious than MERS or SARS?

No, again. It is less contagious than either of its bigger brothers.

But isn’t it spreading more quickly than those?

Yes, it is, but that has got more to do with the advances in mass transport than the virus itself. We now have bigger, faster planes, and cheaper fares, so people can move from country to country much faster than they could even twenty years ago. That is why this virus spread so quickly, not because it was more contagious, just that the carriers got from point A to point B quicker than they would have twenty years ago, and so the virus spread more quickly.

Ready for a Pop Quiz?

Which country or region has the highest number of cases reported per million people?

A. China

B. Spain

C. Italy

D. USA

E. None of the above

The answer is E. None of the above, and the right answer will blow you away because it hasn’t even been mentioned on any media channel I have watched since the outbreak began in January.

It is, in fact, Vatican City, with 7,491 confirmed cases per million as of Midnight last night GMT (28/03/20), followed a fair way back by San Marino with 6,602. San Who?

Spain only ranks 9th, with 1,556, Italy 10th with 1,529, the USA ranks well ahead of China at 30th spot with 374, Australia even ranks ahead of China at 53rd spot with 149, and poor old China, the butt of ‘The Trump Card’s venom — “It’s the China Virus, let China deal with it”, only ranks 88th out of 199 countries globally with confirmed cases, with 57 confirmed cases per million people.

Bet you didn’t see that on 9News, did you?

And just to round out this section, here are the real statistics, as opposed to the bright red numbers that the mass media flash up on your screen every night. Globally, there have been less than 700,000 confirmed cases, which sounds like a huge number, but putting that into perspective, last time I checked the Global Population was 7,774 million (it is going up literally every second, yes, up, not down).

So globally, your chances of even contracting the virus are 0.009 of one percent, and in Australia, 0.015 of one percent. And if you live in Australia and you do catch the virus, your likelihood of it actually killing you is one in 2 million. Of course, most of the deaths worldwide and in Australia have been among the very elderly (over 80) and people with pre-existing health problems, as you would expect with any infection, so if you are young and healthy, your chances or recovering are twenty times better.

Hopefully by now you will have got the message that this isn’t the end of the world as we know it, just a massive overreaction by our governments, in order to be seen to be doing something in response to the mass hysteria that the media has stirred up.

But what can you and I do to recover from this SHF?

Glad you asked! First thing is — don’t panic! Accept that Shit Happens! Bad things happen, even to good people. Accept it. Accept that what we have now, lockdowns, lockouts, social distancing, is the new ‘normal’ for now. Live with it. Deal with it. It will pass, so just go with it for now.

If you still have a job, or a business, be grateful. Be generous. If you need to order home deliveries because your local shops are closed, tip the delivery person a bit more generously than you normally do. Now more than ever, we need to keep the cash economy flowing as much as possible. If you give the delivery person an extra $5-10, that is $5-10 more they can spend in the community, and that will eventually flow back around to you again.

If your local shops are still open, even a few hours a day, support your local community rather than the national shops — the Morrison Government will look after their big business mates, but they don’t give a shit about the ordinary person or the local shops, so you should. Again, keep the local economy going as much as possible.

Practice social distancing when you go outside, be wary of anyone who is obviously sick, and if you are feeling under the weather, for whatever reason, stay home yourself! Practice common sense hygiene and wash your hands after you touch anything outside your house.

If you are stuck indoors, you can use the time to improve your education by doing online courses, and you can exercise indoors using chairs and tables and cans of soup as weights. Don’t just veg out on NetFlix or YouTube.

Above all, ask yourself these two questions: What can I do right now to advance my business or career when this hysteria ends?

And:

What can I do for my community right now to help it recover once this SHF ends? Then do those two things! Repeat tomorrow.

The best way to recover from any SHF is not to rely on the government to fix the problem, but for all of us to work together to help one another right now.

What can we do right now to help you or your business to recover from this SHF? Let us know in the comments below. I will leave you with a news flash:

It began in the East. At least, that’s what the experts think. Maybe it came from animals. Maybe it was the Chinese. Maybe it was a curse from the gods.

One thing is certain: it radiated out east, west, north, and south, crossing borders, then oceans, as it overwhelmed the world. The only thing that spread faster than the contagion was the fear and the rumours. People panicked. Doctors were baffled. Government officials dawdled and failed. Travel was delayed or rerouted or aborted altogether. Festivals, gatherings, sporting events — all cancelled. The economy plunged. Bodies piled up.

The institutions of government proved very fragile indeed.

Sounds familiar? That wasn’t today’s Mid-Day News, that was written by Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor and one of the first daily bloggers in history.

We’re talking, of course, about the Antonine Plague of 165 CE, a global pandemic with a mortality rate of between 2-3%, which began with flu-like symptoms until it escalated and became gruesome and painfully fatal. Millions were infected. Between 10 and 18 million people eventually died. Yet here we are again!