Nothing like a global pandemic to throw your holiday plans into disarray.
Should you book tickets? Should you hold off? Should you take refuge on an island and hide?
This week's Four Corners episode about the Coronavirus epidemic and subsequent announcements around the world, really hit home for those thinking about travel.
Mainly that we should stay home, for the foreseeable future at least, and refrain from breathing.
Failing that, avoid venturing overseas on a boat or plane or any other potential incubator.
You can hear Corporal Jones from Dad's Army crying "don't panic!" and yes Four Corners is good at inducing that. Indeed I find the theme song often triggers the sweats.
But let's not shoot the messenger.
From cracking jokes about the name of the virus a couple of weeks ago, the penny has dropped that this virus could have a significant impact - on our holiday.
Of course, there are incredibly more serious implications, but as a would-be tourist, you can only play what's in front of you.
Normally when recovering from a hard-hitting episode of Four Corners you try and filter the alarm from the concern and then establish whether hysteria is an appropriate response.
This can be hard to juggle of a Monday night if you've already watched Australian Story.
More from Simon Walker: The complete That's Life archive
Thankfully, the human mind has the capability to take it all in, and then move on to Media Watch.
The Coronavirus pandemic doesn't seem so straightforward, however, particularly if you're dealing with travel agents.
The warnings signs are things will get foggier before they clear up. A matter of when not if. And that places you in the flight corridor of uncertainty.
The early conspiracy theory of a Chernobyl-style cover-up has turned out to be true. Chinese authorities hushed up the problem and then lost any chance of containing it. Now it's going free range across the globe and doing what contagion does best - infecting global consumer confidence.
Calm isn't predicted to descend until probably well after our travel dates.
How concerned should we be?
Well, Australia's chief biomedical guru has put the situation at a 9 out of 10 - up from her earlier more optimistic 7. Maybe she was planning a holiday too.
Events seem to support her change of opinion. Factories at a standstill, supply lines cut, share markets sliding. Not to mention the mortality rate. Where it will end, no one is quite sure yet.
Footage of mega-cities in China completely shut down and SWAT teams dragging away anybody with a temperature seemed heavy-handed at first.
It's now being touted as the go-to way of dealing with a health crisis "at scale".
Setting aside the possibility of actually contracting the virus, dealing with disruptions like that on the road paints a pretty average picture for good times.
Who could blame people for checking the cancellation policy on their travel insurance? Or not booking at all.
