Matchaparty is doing a series of tea ceremonies around the Bay Area to to address Coronavirus.
Bowls will not be shared.
VIRAL BIOLOGY OR
VIRAL MEDIA:
Vulnerability is the currency of the 21st Century Economy
What is the affect of media on embodiment?
When does fear become embodied? How do we segregate ourselves? What does this mean? How will it develop? What does it spell for our health and, apparently, for all civilization??
You've heard about Coronavirus. It comes from China. It poses an imminent risk. Authoritarian crackdown has begun - for your own good. Apparently, very soon, all hospitals will be overrun. We are told the only thing we can do is isolate ourselves.
With about 5/100 hospitalizations leading to death, the risks statistically seem quite bad.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
But compare it with the flu in the 2018-2019 season - with close to 14/100 hospitalizations leading to death.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html
The flu in 2017-2018 in the USA killed around 80,000 people, a record high in 40 years.
https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/26/cdc-us-flu-deaths-winter/
Last year in 2018-2019 the flu killed 52,000 in the USA alone. This year it has already killed 20,000 in the USA. people.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flu-deaths-20000-americans-this-season-including-136-children-cdc/
The hardest hit group is elders, which forces us to face mortality - how are we going to go.
Deaths by influenza and pneumonia have hovered in the last decade between 12-25/100,000 people in the USA.
For context, the rate of death by suicide is 15/ 100,000.
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/
But the rate of death by heart disease is around 160/100,000.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db328-h.pdf
By contrast, the TOTAL deaths by Coronavirus - even if they become thousands - are statistically quite small.
Yet, the news media has tapped into the fearsome possibilities for the Coronavirus, and it is stirring up economic collapse as well as general panic, with people hoarding antiseptic soap and food supplies. The sense is - "this is the end times."
The question is: how can governments, news agencies, municipalities, and average people address this growing panic? How can we address our own panic? How can we consider what sickness is in our own bodies? How can we practice compassion?