A/N: If President Shinra was just a little more creative in finding ways to get people to demand he (effectively) put martial law in place...

Omake: In Sickness...

Lady Shinra, Lucrecia Crescent, and Vincent had gone out to a restaurant with outdoor, covered seating to meet one of the Lady's business partners, and had decided to stay for lunch. A rail separated the eating area from the sidewalk, and flowering trellises (which were mostly plastic because living plants didn't last long in Midgar) largely kept the people in the eating area from being seen while giving them a decent view of the street. It was a day warmer than most at that time of year, so none of the three particularly cared to return to their indoor offices just yet, and Carbuncle was apparently having fun exploring the area.

At about that time, Lady Shinra saw a man running down the street in a panic as he recited, "Gotta get more toilet paper!" over and over. Going the other way moments later was a woman who was saying, somewhat lower than the man, but no less panicked, "...Find disinfectant spray..." Someone down the street yelled, "Stop crowding! Six feet apart or we're all dead!"

Raising a brow at that last statement, Lady Shinra turned to face Lucrecia as the Doctor gave a tired sigh. "So...What's going on out there?" the blond woman asked.

"The news station decided they needed to raise ratings, and have been going around announcing to people a sensationalist story about a 'respiratory infection' which is killing people," Lucrecia answered.

"...They're sensationalizing a cold how?" Lady Shinra asked, brow raised higher at the words.

"Primarily by not telling them that a cold and a respiratory infection are the same thing, by not calling it a cold at all—in fact, they sometimes mis-label it as a flu—and by giving the death toll. Of course, they're also letting people think it's the 'respiratory infection' which is killing them, not the usual complications caused by a compromised immune system," Lucrecia informed the woman in amusement. "And they recently decided to re-name this cold by the terms of that flu which transferred to us from an animal, and have always been referring to it as an 'outbreak' and a 'pandemic', which it's not even close to yet."

"Sorry, but what's the difference between a cold and a flu? I thought they were the same thing?" the Turk with them asked in puzzlement. After all, medical knowledge wasn't in a Turk's job description, even if they knew some injury first aid.

"That's also due to the media using the words like they're interchangeable," Lucrecia sighed. "An actual 'flu' causes things like stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. It's a short, but worrisome list if it doesn't stop in two days or less. A cold, on the other hand, causes the nice long list of possible symptoms which includes sore throat, coughing, sneezing, stuffy nose, runny nose, headache, and fever."

"And what kinds of statistics does this cold have?" Lady Shinra asked of the brown haired woman.

"It's largely behaving like a normal cold for anyone under age seventy, with the exception of it somehow not targeting children unless they have an especially compromised immune system. Age seventy and above has higher rates, particularly of deaths, with a little over seven percent chance of dying due to complications from seventy to eighty and a fifteen percent chance above eighty. Of the people who have died, about ninety percent have been the very elderly in nursing homes, care homes, and hospitals. That's of the people we know who have it, which is maybe about ten percent of the people who have gotten it and just went about their normal lives thinking it was a common cold. The total death toll is about three and a half percent overall, which is only about one percent higher than it would be of complications from a common cold."

"That's not overly extreme," Lady Shinra blinked. "Why do you say it hasn't reached pandemic level yet?"

"For that matter, what is pandemic level?" Vincent asked.

"A certain portion of the world population needs to have something for it to be called a 'pandemic'. That's not a percentage, it's a stipulated number the President set at around 30 million (1). If this was more deadly, calling an outbreak may be feasible, but because it's just a 'respiratory infection', that's not an outbreak of anything, despite some deaths having happened, like they always do. And to be honest, we haven't even hit a quarter of a million infected yet, even taking into account all the people who had it and were never tested."

"...So...Since when are death tolls due to complications of a cold ever given to the public?" Lady Shinra asked, suddenly feeling a headache coming on. And she was suddenly very thankful her husband wasn't paying any attention at all to this.

"They normally aren't," the Doctor shrugged.

"But if people are dying, shouldn't the public be informed so they can take measures to prevent illness?" Vincent asked, brow furrowed.

He blinked when both women sighed, but then Lucrecia met his gaze and said bluntly, "Vincent, people have always died from complications to any illness going around, including common colds. Those with weakened immune systems, like with chronic illness or those who are very aged or very young, have always been more susceptible to those complications than the average person. Most recovered regardless, and some didn't. And in this case, again, the young aren't really at risk at all. With the death toll only being around three and a half percent, it's really nothing to worry about."

"But that's still a lot of people!" Vincent exclaimed, though quietly.

"Did you know around fifteen percent of the world's population dies in car accidents every year?" the woman replied in annoyance. He blinked and opened his mouth, so she added quickly, "Compared to all of about three and a half percent dying of this cold, which one do you think you have better odds of surviving—the fifteen percent deaths or the three and a half?"

He tipped his head to the side in confusion, then asked, "Aren't people being told all this?"

"That's where the newsmedia has massively failed to do their jobs as journalists," Lady Shinra informed him. "They're all about the money—and sensationalism—now, not about truthful reporting. I would guess they 'know' these statistics, but are choosing not to share them, or being ordered not to, so everything sounds much worse than it is."

"Okay, but this cold is notable for a fever and a dry cough, so how could people miss that combination?" Vincent asked with a small frown.

"Newsflash, Vinny," she retorted, clearly annoyed enough to mock her lover's name. "The reality is, until about twenty years ago, a common symptom of a cold was a fever because that was an indication the immune system had booted up fully to manage the illness. That lack of accompanying fever for the last twenty years indicates an immune system being so stressed it can't react to illness the way it should. In other words, it's been compromised. And the reasons for that are all around us, with the poisons in the air, the water, the ground—our food and our drinks. Yet, despite that, this cold is only marginally better at compromising our systems than previous ones."

"Or because it's an external virus, our bodies are reacting poorly to it," Vincent said.

Lucrecia smirked. "That's actually not possible because our bodies all have the cold virus—nearly every kind—inside them at all times, including four versions of this one. All they need is a trigger to make one grow in excess and overtake our systems. The overgrowth is the 'cold'. And the most common trigger for a cold is doing something as inane as changing the amount of sunlight—or Vitamin D—you get in a day, which is why spring and fall are common 'cold seasons'. Of course, another trigger is someone passing on extra of one virus, which in turn makes our corresponding virus enter overgrowth. Our bodies manage colds just fine, and need some pretty serious compromising to actually cause severe illness or death."

"So what are examples of external illnesses, then?" Lady Shinra blinked in surprise.

"Things like tuberculosis, malaria, or the measles," the Doctor answered promptly. "All of which I would be much more worried about than I would worry about this. Even a flu is external, and more dangerous, than this cold."

There was shouting on the street about a shop being closed, and Lady Shinra sighed as she asked, "And they're actually so taken in by the sensationalism of the newsmedia that they're willingly destroying their own livelihoods and the economy?"

"What?" both of the other two asked in surprise.

"When shops shut down, they make no money and don't employ people," she said. "The same is true of any business, factory, service, school—it means people are choosing to stay home and have no income for an undefined amount of time. How will they pay bills or rent? While some building managers may allow leniency for them not paying their rent on time, most of them are in it for the money and will quite happily evict anyone who can't pay because they went into a panic about a cold. When people aren't making money, they aren't spending it,either, and the economy collapses."

"Here's another one for you," Lucrecia said, tone derisive. "One of our associates actually came to us—myself and Hojo—to demand we make a vaccine for a cold. Even though a flu vaccine is semi-possible because it's external, a cold is impossible to create a vaccine for. It was amusing to see Hojo look so incredulous. He said we could try it, but he wasn't holding out much hope of succeeding, and even hopes the President will let him publicly announce to the people that anyone claiming to have made a vaccine is either offering a dud or something toxic. Believe me, if it was possible to make a vaccine for a cold, we'd have done it by now."

Out on the street, someone called a few Infantry members over to help manage people going into a shopping center, and Lady Shinra sighed. "The fools. I hope this doesn't reach my husband's ears."

"Why?" Vincent asked in confusion, and Lucrecia looked curious.

"Because a store just asked the Infantry to help manage people entering and exiting," she answered dryly. "First, people are putting themselves on lockdown and trying to enforce strict distances, and now they're practically demanding martial law be enforced. And we all know, once it's enforced, it won't be removed again, but apparently panic makes people think they should just let their rights be taken away. Or even demand their rights be taken away, if they want the military to do things like this. Hence why I hope my husband doesn't get wind of this."

"...Okay, now I'm actually starting to worry about their sanity," the brown haired woman sighed faintly.

"...I think I am, too," Vincent added, looking distinctly alienated.

"...Well, I suppose I shouldn't have expected more from sheeple," Lady Shinra sighed.

"And yet, you won't just leave them to a fate they're bringing on themselves?" the other woman asked in amusement.

"I'd be inclined to let them do as they wished if I was the one in power because I would be honorable enough to remove the 'safety measures' when they weren't needed anymore. I honestly don't think they realize what my husband would enforce on them if they give him so much power," the woman replied. "Because I know what kind of tyrant he actually is, I can't, in good conscience, leave them at his mercy, even if they practically beg to be led to the slaughter like lambs."

"That's actually a bit of a pity just now," Lucrecia chuckled. "But as always, he won't hear about this from us." Vincent nodded his agreement, and Lady Shinra smiled.

Only to sigh as yet another person ran away screaming bloody murder after someone sneezed and the one who sneezed said plaintively, "But it was just dust in my nose..."

Notes:

So yeah...I'm insanely tired of the ridiculous level of panic COVID-19 is producing. So, my roommate and I did some research into things like common colds, COVID-19, actual numbers and statistics, and some comparable, much more common ways to die. This little piece, which pokes fun at panic (which helps no one), was the result. Other than the specific number for 'pandemic' status, everything else is about COVID-19, reactions as much as actual data, from multiple sources which do not include the newsmedia.

(1) I've adjusted this, because on a much smaller world with a much smaller population, the number would probably be about 30 million for full-scale pandemic level, rather than the 300 million of Earth. After all, Midgar is the only metropolis, and has a population between 35 million and 40 million.