Coronavirus is changing the world
Coronavirus or COVID-19 has disrupted the whole world, there is no question about that. On Saturday, the city of Barcelona decided to postpone the city’s Marathon scheduled for March 15th with over 17,000 people signed up to run it till October 2020 to prevent the spread of the virus. Just one day before, the city of Austin historically decided to cancel one of the world’s most popular tech, music and cinema festivals, the South by Southwest more commonly known as SXSW.
These cancellations or postponements of massively attended events are now a daily occurrence. But not only huge events are getting cancelled: everywhere around the world companies are deciding to cancel or postpone their annual events and conferences over fears of their employees and clients getting infected with the novel virus. Even legislators are banning all major public gatherings like Switzerland did a few days ago. In Italy and France, officials have “discouraged people to shake hands and kissing” to greet people. Major sporting events are being played without fans and even the NBA has told teams and players to prepare to play in empty arenas…
News outlets are constantly reporting on coronavirus. Every new death, every new infection, every new country reporting the first case… exclusive interviews with quarantined people, experts and pseudo-experts giving their views on it and hinting on conspiracy theories that spread like wildfire on social media.
Are we being rational? Is this virus really as dangerous and deadly as media is reporting? Is the end of the world coming? Not really. There are obviously some things of the virus that should be taken seriously, but the real pandemic that’s spreading around the world is panic and fear.
Coronavirus: What do the experts say?
Peter Diamandis, founder and executive chairman of the XPRIZE Foundation, named by Fortune as one of the “World’s 50 Greatest Leaders” and expert on exponential technologies has recently wrote an eye-opening blog post on the subject. As usual with Peter, an optimist by nature, he’s putting things into perspective with hard data taking a deep look into the numbers to calm down fears and fight disinformation.
In the second part of the post, he is sharing a must-read post by Dr. Paul Sax, an infectious disease expert from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sax is Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has been on faculty since 1992. He is also currently the principal investigator at the BWH AIDS Clinical Trials Unit.
Dr. Sax is sharing on his blog Frequently Asked Questions about Coronavirus and his expert responses to those. We highly encourage you to read it here: link
Please take a few minutes to read Peter Diamandis full blog post here: Fear vs Reality – Coronavirus
Book Peter Diamandis to speak at your event
If you want to book Dr. Peter Diamandis for your next event, please contact us for his exact availability and fees. You cannot hold your event right now to help fight the spread of the virus or due to a ban? Peter can also be booked to speak via video… and even via Hologram! This is how Peter prepares his Hologram speeches:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPan2hSlfHY[/embedyt]Interested in other topics? Aurum Speakers Bureau represents the best keynote speakers on business & entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, climate change & sustainability and more. Most of them can be booked, like Peter, via video in case of travel impediments. Contact us and we will make your next event a big success, despite of any virus!
