So all those daft articles like, “If You’re Worried About the Coronavirus, Worry More About the Flu, DURR DURR DURR” are looking pretty doltish now, right?

Which I knew at the time. This is the opposite of Y2K, what Y2K could’ve been if it hadn’t been laboriously corrected. While there is no reason to panic, there has always been substantial risk of a 1918-like pandemic in an ever-more globalized and interconnected world. We now might’ve hit that risk inflection point and with the de facto stretched and JIT supply chains the disruptions might make 1918 look like a minor blip, leading to yet more secondary deaths and hardship.

And if Covid-19 turns out to be as bad as it could be, the same buncha numpties who said that Y2K was never a problem will be bellyaching that not enough was done about Covid-19.