Saturday, May 02, 2009

WHY SWINE FLU isn't so scary.

UPDATE. Overreaction is more costly than the virus itself, writes VC Bill Gurley:
Some people rationalize that this hysteria serves a noble purpose, in that it prepares us for the worse.  This, however, ignores the fact that there are tremendous real economic costs to overreaction, and that sometimes overreaction has far reaching negative impacts which can be many times greater than than that of the original problem.  In the case of swine-flu, schools and universities are closing, countries are unnecessarily slaughtering animals, and travel and entertainment are being constrained in an already fragile world economy.  For Mexico, which already has enormous political and economic issues, overreaction is remarkably painful, virtually inihiliating all tourism - the third largest sector of it’s economy.