More Perspective

This morning, I posted this on my Facebook page:

“台灣朋友。 自從病毒恐慌開始以來，在台湾已有240人在道路上被殺，數千人受傷。

您要如何應對這種持續的流行病？

請停止像白痴一樣開車”

The translation is:

“Taiwan friends. Since the start of the virus panic, 240 people have been killed on the road in Taiwan and thousands have been injured.

How do you respond to this ongoing epidemic?

Please stop driving like an idiot.”

Then, on my Twitter feed (ooh, look at me, citing both Facebook and Twitter in the same post), this came along. So I nicked it. It is taken from Private Eye. Read it carefully. It makes so much sense, but just lacks any reference to the risks faced on the roads of the world in general, and Taiwan in particular.

It seems to me that this kind of thing could reach millions in an instant. I have a paltry 240 ‘friends’ on Facebook, of which perhaps 60% are Taiwanese or people living in Taiwan. Let’s call it 150 people, and let’s assume that they each have an average of 200 ‘friends’, who in turn have 200 additional friends, and so on. In just a handful of moves, that means a message could reach 1.2 billion people. Check my arithmetic:

Of course, this could also work for that virus.

So, this could be viral, right? Let’s go!