Doing the opposite of what one should be doing under threat: remaining lucid and further sobering up.

Ref.:

> When in trouble, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout

~~~ Walt Disney (through Donald Duck)

and

> Come on, guys. Nobody wants this. We're supposed to be fucking professionals!

~~~ Quentin Tarantino (through Mr. Pink)

-- some book you may have heard of

That's easy for yourself but not for a population that considered Trump's advice to inject bleach. In such a dynamic a lab leak would have been interpreted by some as bioweapon attack.

And I didn't see much fear of Corona among the scientists, but despair about the reaction of the population.

Just look how some don't take COVID serious but think of the vaccines as either mond control or mass execution device. Some even belief nobody died of COVID but the hospital killed people and claimed Corona. Some also wonder what evil motives are behind the fact that unvaccinated people die more often from COVID. Is it to punish them for their disobedience?

It's the same with climate change, the problem isn't necessarily the science or the technology but the people refusal to act accordingly.

At some point you either need to give up or enforce action.

Every country on Earth, even supposedly "good" ones, lied, dissembled, covered up, or otherwise failed to govern fairly and transparently during this crisis. Every one! Even in places world renowned for lack of corruption and correct functioning, systems were put in place to hide the scale and scope of the disaster.

There is a lesson here.