Cinco de Mayo used to be dream date for Tequila makers, Mexican beers breweries and margarita mix devisers.
Not this year.
The unfortunate hype around “H1N1″ aka Swine Flu and our friends in Mexico has cast a cloud over Cinco de Mayo. For places like San Diego (just 30 miles north of the border), today’s a barometer to measure if Americans have figured out that erring on the side of caution is, well, erring on the side of caution. In an age where communication is faster and more accessible than ever before, human emotions can still trump the facts. A barrage of images of people wearing masks conjured up memories of SARS, plain and simple.
This is not to downplay that people have gotten sick, and some have died.
But I know what public health hysteria looks like up close.
I stood in Hong Kong’s Kowloon District at the height of the SARS outbreak in 2003. During a 4-day business trip to the mammoth Huawei outside Shenzhen, China, and Beijing (before the SARS penetration was fully disclosed there), people took precautions as best they could.
Hysteria looks like every single man, woman and child both indoors and out wearing a blue mask: Police. Street road construction crews. Flight attendants. Pilots. Hotel workers. Toll booth collectors. All of them.
I remember coming back to San Diego and feeling a little rundown. I had a pesky cough. I was congested.
I stayed out of the office for 2 weeks and telecommuted to my start-up. I slept on the sofa away from my wife just to be safe. I, as the TSA signs instruct today, covered my cough.
Fear is a terrible thing.
Facts are what we need more than ever.
Not opinion. Not hype. Not hope.
Facts.
