This an interesting question. My knee jerk reaction would be to say this is not hysteria because I don't see people acting in ways commonly thought of as hysterical. But then, maybe this is what hysteria looks like.

The one reason I question if this is hysteria is because it's happening so uniformly around the world, a world in which countries and peoples love differ and argue. A question I have is, why is basically every country falling into line on this, and what is happening in those countries or regions that aren't shutting down and aren't engaging in strict distancing?

It will be interesting to see what happens in the US in the coming month or two as states open up even while the virus is still, apparently, raging. What happens when a region opens up and the world doesn't end? Conversely, what happens when a region opens up and cases rapidly quadruple?

There's something else I've been thinking about. The last couple of times I've been back in the US, I've been shocked by the health of Americans. Obesity, in some places, is the norm. I'll be shopping and be surrounded by obese people in electric carts. There will be traffic jams in the ice cream isle. I'm not joking, and the vast majority of people riding these things are not old, they're obese.

Are these, and other severely unhealthy people, mostly the ones dying? I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, not at all. My point is, perhaps the virus is just part of the story here.

One other reason I question hysteria as a cause of our situation is because this situation, as it's playing out, is caused not by the virus but by the decisions of politicians and power brokers. We don't have communities coming to an agreement to close down, it's being required of us. Indeed, we have an increasing number of voices protesting for freedom to move, associate, and do business. I do see the media whipping up hysteria, but they always do that. So the question is, why is there such a political rush to shut the world down when this thing is, let's face it, just not that deadly? Or do they know something we don't?