Coronavirus – killing businesses one news story at a time
Do you feel overwhelmed with worry about this Coronavirus pandemic?
Are you being bombarded by stories that make you feel anxious, uncertain and scared? Are you left wondering how your business will survive when all your clients stop coming?
As a Pilates professional I feel that it is my job to remain calm, dispel gossip and support my community by pointing them in the direction of qualified information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic:
A pandemic (from Greek πᾶν pan “all” and δῆμος demos “people”) is a disease epidemic that has
spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents, or worldwide. A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected people is not a pandemic. Further, flu pandemics generally exclude recurrences of seasonal flu. Throughout history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis. One of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death, which killed an estimated 75–200 million people in the 14th century. The current pandemics are HIV/AIDS and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).[1][2] Other recent pandemics include the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu) and the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1).
As a business professional and savvy marketer I can see the awesome stories our news people are coming up with. The stories that invoke emotions of fear, discomfort and anxiety. You can feel it too right? Look at your feed for too long and its difficult not to feel uncomfortable with what is coming up. It’s quite brilliant really.. if you look at it from a marketing perspective.
How much of what you are reading on your feed is directly from the health organisations and how much of it is written by reporters and posted on to news channels? My advice to you is to only look at information from the direct sources of health officials.
In Australia you can find up to date relevant information on:
https://www.health.gov.au/health-topics/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov
Another source of information is directly on the World Health Organisation website. I do see alot of stories being made using facts from WHO but you still need to go directly to the WHO website for facts. You will see the stories are taken from facts and then emotion inducing stories are created to get your attention.
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports/
This is not a news source. It is a Government run website that is not relying on any funding from people buying into stories.
In fact when you go onto the WHO website there is a whole plethora of outbreaks that may be of concern. A choose your own adventure depending on where in the World you are:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/en/
Do not get carried away by the stories that are being put in front of you. Be informed, be educated. Do not be scared off by the sensationalism.
In the words of the great Dalai Lama ‘there is no benefit in worrying, whatsoever’.
As a health professional basic hygiene is always a high priority. Common sense prevails and our clients health and welfare is front of mind always. Wash your hands, avoid contact with people who are sick, remind our clients of the importance of staying home when they are ill, always and let us know in advance that you can not make it.
Our cancellation policy is still in effect, our appointments and classes are running as normal and our staff are well informed by the health authorities on the latest updates and findings.
Do yourself a favour. Stop reading the news and start being informed.
