It’s a numbers game and I’m not a gambler, so I’m staying home. The more you walk around, the more you spread the virus, the more people get sick, the greater the number of people, possibly a loved one, in need of respirators and the faster we will crash the healthcare system.

We are going through this in Italy today, but tomorrow it will be your country. The virus is already there amongst you, speedily jumping from person to person while you chat sipping your lattes and negronis, but governments, politicians and journalists prefer to deny reality or tell a tale of spectacular contagion. If they were true professionals (and not vote mongers and click baiters) they would tell a tale of ignorance amongst the population and heroics in the hospitals. People in the streets who are incapable of sacrificing their liberty for the greater good. People smugly walking around with an aura of invincibility. People refusing, for once, to think of their neighbour first. They would tell you to stay home. They would explain that we will get through this only if we stick to the WHO guidelines and ignore the “Top 10” list of the moment or the “it’s just the flu” comment of the latest empty headed “influencer”.

You may not get it or you may get it and a few coughs later get on with life, but your favourite uncle, your already sick sister and your ageing parents may get it and need an isolated ICU bed and ventilator to battle symptoms. Do you really want to contribute to pushing the system to the brink, at which point doctors will have to choose who gets a ventilator and who doesn’t?

I would say better safe than sorry. There will be plenty of time when we get this virus under control to go back to our selfish daily lives.