Don’t call the Coronavirus the China Flu

Let’s look at the term Coronavirus for a minute. It has been reported that 38% of beer drinkers would not drink a Corona beer since this pandemic began. Why? Corona beer has nothing to do with Coronavirus.

It’s because of the story we tell ourselves.

There is too much information in the world to process. In order to make sense of it, we have to create shortcuts. And so, we cherry-pick information to amplify a narrative we already have.

We don’t look for information to change our minds. No, we create shortcuts to amplify our narrative—we sort information, lump things together, put it in a box and label it.

The problem is with these shortcuts is, overtime, we continue to lump things together that shouldn’t. That is why some beer drinkers will not touch a Corona beer. Consumers have let their biases and prejudices get in the way of their fears. As a result, we lump Corona beer with Coronavirus.

“I’ll go with the Heineken this time, just in case.”

We are just not that good at taxonomy.

The truth is, all labels are a human invention. If one isn’t working then we can drop it and pick up a new one. Just call it Covid-19 and quit lumping all of China into one box. The people in China are just…people, not a virus. And they don’t want to be associated with this just like Corona Beer. It’s spreading unnecessary fear and violence.