The views expressed in this column are the individualu2019s and donu2019t represent those of the paper How to be an utterly confident idiot L et me offer myself as an example of a confident idiot , at least for a short period last week. As a fan of fact- check and reasoned doubt, I have been trying to fight the surging tide of panic about coronavirus by telling people itu2019s far from the end of the world.

A friend was deciding to postpone her return to Laos, where she lived, for fear of coronavirus u2014 or COVID- 19 as it is now named. Laos was close to China, she reasoned, had porous borders and poor administrative controls even if no cases yet.