Panic is never appropriate in financial markets.
But outside of it, where it concerns matters of life and death, we should panic. If panic was not essential for our survival, millions of years of evolution would not have given us this trait.
Don’t keep it as business as usual until officially reported numbers spike. Had Wuhan administration panicked early, instead of keeping normalcy, we might have been able to contain the virus within Wuhan itself. Now, containment seems impossible. But the S-curve growth of infected in South Korea shows that panic is effective in slowing down its spread. Our infrastructure cannot handle a steep rise in infected, by flattening the curve we can buy some precious time.
I stopped trading two weeks back, as the risks looked too high, and my trading system is designed for trending bull markets, not the high volatility markets like present. But not only have I kept all of my long term investments intact, I am also adding small quantities on every steep fall. Coronavirus outbreak is huge negative in the short run, but it does not impacts the long term earnings of the underlying businesses much. That said, I am only 50% in equities, with rest mostly in gold, so I have enough reserves to keep buying.
But outside of the investment world, I am taking all precautions against virus, as well as spreading the panic.