Network paradoxes galore!
The nCovid-19 saga really scares me. Yes, the virus and its highly contagious nature, is one part of the scare. The other part of the scare is our response to it. Yes, we need aggressive measures to "flatten the curve" and enforce social distancing, hand washing, etc. But the way we are going about implementing it, has the potential to make the problem worse, with long term collateral damage. Let me explain. One of my primary areas of research is in complex social networks and its emergent properties. What we are seeing today is almost a textbook case of all kinds of network paradoxes in action-- Braess' paradox, Cobra effects, Streisand effects, Prisoners' dilemma, bull-whip effect, etc. Just about all of these, refer to situations where a given policy or norm is adopted towards achieving a particular goal, but the end result would be exactly the opposite. It is somewhat like the popular saying that, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."