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It Is Easy to Overreact to the Chinese Coronavirus
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Recently, a new coronavirus has been causing many illnesses and deaths. The virus first became active in Wuhan, China, but it has already spread to the rest of China. Scattered cases have been identified around the rest of the world as well.
There are two important questions that are already being encountered:
- How much of an attempt should be made to limit the spread of the new virus? For example, should businesses close to prevent the spread of the virus?
- Should this disease be publicized as being far worse than flu viruses that circulate each year and cause many deaths among the elderly and people in poor health? The median age of those dying from the new coronavirus seems to be about 75.
Unfortunately, there aren’t easy answers. We can easily see the likely outcome of under reaction. More people might die of the disease. More people might find themselves out of work for a couple of weeks or more with the illness. We tend to be especially concerned about ourselves and our own relatives.
The thing that is harder to see is that reacting too vigorously can have a hugely detrimental impact on the world economy. The world economy depends on international trade and tourism. China plays a key role in the world economy. Quarantines of whole regions that last for weeks and months can have a very detrimental impact on the wages of people in the area and profits of local companies. Problems with debt can be expected to spike. The greater the reaction to the coronavirus, the more likely the world economy will be pushed toward recession and job loss.
The following are a few of my thoughts regarding possible overreaction:
[1] The Chinese coronavirus seems to be extremely contagious, even before a person who has been exposed shows any symptoms. The only way we can be certain to contain the virus seems to be through quarantines lasting up to 14 days.
China’s National Health Minister, Ma Xiaowei, has provided information that seems quite alarming. With the new virus, a person may become communicable shortly after he/she has been infected, but symptoms may not appear for up to 14 days. This allows the infected person to infect many others without realizing that he/she is a carrier for the disease.
Today, the United States and many other countries screen for the virus by checking passengers arriving on planes from affected areas for fevers. Given the information provided by China’s National Health Minister, this approach seems unlikely to be sufficient to catch all of the people who may eventually come down with the disease. If a country really wants to identify all the potential carriers of the disease, it appears that a 14-day quarantine for all travelers from infected areas may be needed.
Such a quarantine becomes administratively difficult to handle for the huge number of people who are likely to travel from China. Such a quarantine would make it impossible for pilots and other airline workers to make a living, for example. They would be spending too much of their time in quarantine to do the work needed to support themselves and their families.
A related concern is that person-to-person transmission is very easy with the Chinese coronavirus. We don’t know for certain how many people each infected individual infects, but one estimate is that each infected person transmits the disease to an average of 2.5 other people. With this transmission rate, the number of people having the disease can be expected to grow exponentially, perhaps for several months.
Based on these concerns, it seems to me that funds spent on trying to contain the coronavirus are likely to be largely wasted. The new Chinese virus will spread widely, regardless of attempts to contain it. At most, quarantines will slightly slow the transmission of the disease. At the same time, quarantines will be quite disruptive of commerce. They will tend to reduce both total wages and total output of goods and services of the area.
[2] Deaths from pathogens are part of the natural cycle. They help prune back the population of the old and weak.
We know that in ecosystems, one of the functions of naturally occurring fires is to clear out “deadwood,” to allow healthy new growth to occur. In fact, some types of seeds seem to require smoke for germination. When inadequate natural burning takes place, bushfires as seen in Australia and forest fires as seen in California become an increasing problem.
Deaths from pathogens seem to play a similar role in human economies. This is especially the case with pathogens that especially target the weak and old. Most flu viruses have this characteristic. Early reports of deaths from the coronavirus suggest that this same pattern of targeting the old and weak is occurring with this virus as well. As noted above, the median age of those dying from the new coronavirus seems to be about 75 years.
Since the 1940s, modern medicine has been able to develop antibiotics and vaccines to counteract the impact of many pathogens. This, of course, makes citizens happy, but it has the disadvantage of changing the population in a way that leaves the economy with a much higher percentage of elderly people and others in poor health. This higher level of elderly and medically needy people makes it easy for viruses and other pathogens to make their rounds, just as leaving deadwood on the forest floor makes it easier for fires to spread.
With this rising population of people who cannot support themselves, tax rates for the remaining citizens tend to become very high. Young workers may become discouraged because they do not have enough income remaining after paying taxes to raise their own families. In effect, they cannot support both their young families and the many old people.
Viewed from this unusual perspective, the operation of the Chinese coronavirus might even be considered a benefit to society as a whole. The world has overcome the impact of measles, typhoid, polio, and many other diseases. In some sense, it “needs” a new disease added to its portfolio, to replace the ones that have been mostly taken care of by modern medicine. In this way, pensions and other payments targeting the old and weak don’t become too great a burden on the young.
[3] If the Chinese coronavirus were simply allowed to run its course, without publicity that it was in any way unusual, somewhat less than 1% of the world’s population might be expected to die.
To see what would happen if the Chinese coronavirus were to run its course, we might look at what happened with the Spanish Flu, back in 1918. At that time, doctors did not have a way of treating the virus and authorities downplayed concern for the disease. The US Center for Disease Control reports that 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, became infected. At least 50 million people (about 10% of those infected) died.
We don’t yet know with accuracy how many of those infected will die from the current virus. A recent estimate is that about 2.3% of those who are infected will die of the disease (based on 107 dying out of 4,600 infected). If we assume that the percentage of the population that will ultimately catch the new virus is 30%, then the share of the world’s population that would be expected to die would be about [(1/3) x 2.3% = 0.76%].
The UN estimates that the world’s population can be expected to grow by about 1.05% in 2020. If this is the case, the effect of the Chinese virus would be to sharply dampen the population increase for the year. Instead of population rising by 1.05%, it would rise by only 0.29% (= 1.05% – 0.76%), assuming all of the deaths associated with the Chinese coronavirus take place within a year. While this would be a change, it would be fairly small, temporary change.
All of these deaths would be tragic for the families involved but, in a way, they would be less of a problem than the deaths that took place back in 1918. At that time, mortality was high for healthy 20 to 40 year olds, making the flu particularly disruptive for families. The total percentage of the population that died was also much higher, about 3% instead of 0.76%.
[4] A major danger of the virus seems to be one of overreaction.
Today’s world economy is fragile. China, like other countries, has a large amount of debt. Debt defaults related to poor profits of companies closing their operations for a time and workers losing income could easily skyrocket.
Closing down transportation from China would risk pushing the world economy into a very bad recession. In fact, simply having a very large number of people out sick from work would be expected to have an adverse impact on the economy. Spending a large amount of money on hospitalizations and face masks cannot compensate for the loss of productivity of the rest of the economy. Thus, the tendency would be toward recession in China, even if no action toward cutting off travel were taken.
China is a huge supplier of goods to the rest of the world. In fact, in 2016, it used more energy in producing industrial output than the United States, India, Russia and Japan combined.
Figure 1. Chart by the International Energy Agency showing total fuel consumed (TFC) by industry, for the top five fuel consuming nations of the world.
China’s economy has been growing very rapidly since 1990. Figure 2 shows this one way, in GDP comparisons using inflation-adjusted US dollars.
Figure 2. GDP of China and the United States, computed as percentages of World GDP. All amounts in 2010 US dollars, as provided by the World Bank.
Figure 3 is similar to Figure 2, except the growth comparison is made in “2011 Purchasing Power Parity International Dollars.” This adjustment is made because typically the currencies of less developed nations float far below the dollar, in terms of what the local currency will buy. The inflation-adjusted PPP comparison compares output on a basis that is expected to be more consistent with what the local currency will really purchase.
Figure 3. Ratios of the GDP of China and the United States to the World GDP. All amounts in 2011 Purchasing Power Parity International Dollars, as provided by the World Bank.
On this PPP basis, China’s GDP surpassed the US’s GDP in 2014. Figure 3 also shows that the United States has slipped from about 20% of the world’s GDP to about 15% on this basis.
We cannot simply cut off trade with China, regardless of how bad the situation is. China is too big and too important now. The rest of the world desperately needs goods and services produced in China, in spite of what is going wrong from an illness perspective. China plays too key a role in supply chains of many kinds for the country to be left out.
Even cutting off tourism becomes a problem. The share of China’s revenue from tourism amounted to 11% in 2018. While not all of this would drop off, even a dip would lead to lower employment in this part of its economy. Jet fuel use would drop as well.
[5] A particular problem today is low prices for many commodities, including oil and other fossil fuels. These prices are likely to fall further, if China’s economy falters further.
We used to hear that the world would “run out of” oil and that oil prices would rise very high. In fact, if the people who were concerned about the issue had studied history, they would have figured out that a far more likely outcome would be “collapse.” In such a situation, prices of many commodities might fall too low. Revelation 18:11-13 provides a list of a number of commodities, including humans sold as slaves, for which prices dropped very low at the time of the collapse of ancient Babylon.
The problem is a different squeeze than a high-price squeeze. It is more of a growing wage disparity problem, with fewer and fewer of the world’s workers being able to afford the goods and services made by the world economy. This problem feeds back to commodity prices that fall too low for producers of many types. The problem is an affordability issue, rather than one of running out. I have written about this issue many times.
Prices of fossil fuels have been low for a very long time–essentially since late 2014. OPEC has cut back its oil production because of low oil prices. Several US natural gas producers have taken big write offs on natural gas investments. China’s coal production has remained below its 2013 level, because of low prices.
Figure 1. China energy production by fuel, based on 2019 BP Statistical Review of World Energy data. “Other Ren” stands for “Renewables other than hydroelectric.” This category includes wind, solar, and other miscellaneous types, such as sawdust burned for electricity.
If China finds it necessary to cut back on production of goods and services for any reason (excessive sickness within China, visitors aren’t traveling to China, tariffs, customers around the world aren’t buying cars), this reduction in output would be likely to further lower the prices of commodities. More producers would go bankrupt. Countries exporting products as diverse as oil, iron ore, copper and lithium might have economic difficulties.
Lower fossil fuel prices may lead to a cutback in their output, but it is doubtful that this cutback would be offset by an increase in the production of renewables. Falling fossil fuel prices would make the price comparison of renewables to fossil fuels look even worse than it does today. China has cut back on its subsidies for solar panels, and this has led to decreasing Chinese solar installations in both 2018 and 2019.
[6] The best approach might just be to let the Chinese coronavirus run its course. Authorities might also discourage stories about how awful the illness is.
Today, we seem to think that we can fix all problems. Unfortunately, this medical problem doesn’t seem to be fixable in the near-term. We should probably do as governments through the ages have done, which is not very much. We should not publicize the disease as being a whole lot worse than flu viruses in general, for example.
We should certainly look for inexpensive treatments for the disease. For example, there seems to be an effort to examine the possibility of using existing antiviral drugs as a treatment. It seems like an effort could be made to look into ways of treating the disease at home, perhaps using supplemental oxygen for a period. In time, perhaps a vaccine can be developed.
Individuals around the world should be encouraged to get themselves in as good health as possible, so that their own immune systems can fight off pathogens of all types, not just this particular virus. Common sense should be used in washing hands and in avoiding being with sick people. I doubt that it makes sense to encourage the use of masks, goggles and other protective devices.
We, as individuals, cannot live forever on this earth. We also cannot spend an unlimited percentage of GDP on health care: It becomes too high-cost for most citizens. At some point, we need to call a halt to the expectation that we can fix all problems. We live in a world with limited resources. We need to start lowering our expectations, if we don’t want to make our problems worse.
26 Comments on "It Is Easy to Overreact to the Chinese Coronavirus"
Sissyfuss on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 8:25 am
So Gail is saying more damage would be done to the world economy than the world population levels. Sounds like it’s nothing personal, just business.
shortonoil on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 9:04 am
This virus is being treated at as if were SARS or MERS. They are closely related viruses, and both have been studied intently. The problem is that neither SARS or MERS had super carriers. Those are people who can transmit the disease, but display no symptoms. Children, and young people have recently been identified as such carriers. Because of this unique characteristic 2019-nCOV has an order of magnitude greater potential for destruction than either SARS or MERS. A world that is already burdened with a massive debt load will be easy prey for this disease. The verdict will be known in about 10 days.
MOAV on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 1:55 pm
This virus is bio warfare weaponized by CIA to collapse China from within and preserve American hegemony. While the current situation is still in some ways too early to form a definitive assessment, and the virus may or may not continue to mutate and spread even farther and faster etc, and as of this time its an open question whether or not ultimately this will spread massively to the rest of the world, given the already known knowns, here are three classifications in order of ascending severity that think the leadership of China should at least be cognizant of and perhaps formulate a dynamic plan given the emergent contingencies that have already played out, those that continue to evolve, and possible other threats on the horizon. I don’t mean to be alarmists but sometimes its good to think about the worst case and how it might play out in order to better strategize to try and avoid some of the pitfalls.
1) Racism and resentment against China on a global level, perhaps most intense in some of the Western hemispheres as we have already beginning to see in some Dannish newspaper about “freedom of speech” to malign China etc painting a virus on the Chinese flag… This outbreak, regardless of root cause, may seriously stir anti-Chinese racisms sentiment in many parts of the world, creating fear of Chinese people/tourists, and basically a lot of finger pointing, fault finding, maybe some western powers will take advantage of the situation to use it as a jumping board to launch other international smear campaigns (now that the Huawei smear campaign has peaked in its effectiveness) against China and all things Chinese, and if other smaller and weaker countries less prepared to counter this virus threat than China eventually succumb heavily to this virus, it would stand to reason that these countries or their people may harbor resentment and become more wary of dealing with China or the Chinese in the future.
2) Rip and replace of China from the international system, from the world order and from the global trade/economy and worldwide supply chain as a whole. The US trade war with China and the US blocking of Huawei all had one thing in common as the main goal and that was to decouple from China, to erode or destroy the China/Huawei supply chain, and persuade its allies and vassals alike to stop trading or doing business with China. Not long ago Trump twitter commanded all US CEO to immediately move their factories out of China. The goal was to take China out of the equation, to isolate China economically, geopolitically and hegemonically etc and re-route the global supply chain around China, and to have the major players of the world move their own supply chains out of China. The trade war was not as effective as US hoped and in some ways it may have backfired. But now that the US sees China is being ravaged by this new novel virus, it will surely find ways to take advantage of the situation and reformulae its strategies to both contain China’s rise and to isolate China on the world stage, including attempting to move the world to re-route supply chains, trade etc to completely bypass China.
3) Loss of C&C (Command and Control) and making the CCP Central authority ineffective, whilsts causing destablizations that lead to chaos that then spreads like Australia’s uncontained wildfire to every region of the mainland China. As Steven Bannon had publicly hoped, this would “break the back of the Chinese CCP”, and effectively open to the door to outside influence in terms of foreign external regime change. This virus, by effectively forcing China to lockdown and self quarantine itself from the rest of the world, and even segregating its own cities from each other internally, has not only become the very antithesis of China’s globalization, BRI, and digital Yuan plans, but have indeed seemed to create the sort of environment that if not resolved may eventually lead to uprising of the citizenry. Ironically there is even a chance that Chinese government could overplay its hand and in some ways overcorrect for the virus, not only leading to broad criticsms abroad but also more importantly to situational contempt amongsts it own population… Realistically how much longer can Wuhan and Huebei continue to be locked down before people start to panic in mass? Before food starts running out and people go hungry? Or before Wuhan’s economy gets destroyed and shattered to tatters and the people roit, uprise and revolt? There is no doubt that certain Western powers would like to see nothing more than for China to collapse from within, possibly even leading to a new Chinese civil war or worse. Or the virus could suddenly and mysteriously mutate into something far worse, potentially causing a civilization ending event, or at the very least if it is largely contained inside the borders of China then it may be responsible for effectively wiping out and ending the middle kingdom, one of the oldest civilizations on earth.
I hope to be proven wrong and to be shown that the outlook was too pessimistic. Maybe this ends up being just SARS times five or ten, which would be very significant and wipe out a lot of growth in China’s GDP in 2020 but wouldn’t lead to the world re-routing its global supply chain to go around and bypass China; that it would slow down China’s BRI plan and 5G dream and other projects and initiatives –(such as the digital blockchain based Yuan that Huawei is helping Xi implement that could eventually help China de-dollar and might even lead to the bypassing of the SWIFT system, and that of the US petrodollar hegemony, etc etc etc)– but that it wouldn’t completely stop them; that it wouldn’t lead to massive uncontrollable roits in the mainland cities as what had happened in Hong Kong etc; and that China would not be destablized nor would it lose its central command and control effectiveness or the worst cases like be ripe for outside regime change or even the bottom case of having its entire Han population wiped out…
It seems that just as the world is on the cusps of the greatest transition in modern times, that this new Chronovirus that apparently started in Wuhan has the potential to throw a monkey wrench into the equations as it becomes a randomizer event that reshuffles the scene, re-balances the odds, and injects a mysterious question mark into the prevalent high-level macroeconomic, geopolitical, and hegemonic situations and trends of this new decade. This could yet turn out to have serious geopolitical and strategic implications for China, for the US and indeed for the entire world at large.
supremacist muzzies jerk on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 2:44 pm
MOAV on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 1:55 pm
grate comment moav imma steal for my ZHsuicide blog. i make this blog to remember those who died after losing everything in the stock market because they followed advices on zh
i’m also appointing you supertard. your title is “the lover” (of muzzies)
congratulations
Sissyfuss on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 6:15 pm
MOAV is a Chinese apologist. Well, apologize for the the way the Communist party has turned their country into a police state and destroyer of the environment. They cheat at business and repress their people. They can’t be trusted with biological weapons obviously, as well. To hell with China.
Duncan Idaho on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 6:30 pm
non-residential investment in structures, equipment and “intellectual property products”. Investment in equipment and non-residential structures – as a percent of GDP – declined further.
cloggie on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 6:41 pm
grate comment everywun.
don’t forget tomorrow is world supremacist muzzies bag day.
please show ur support
also 79 days to world grater nedertardland day
peakyeast on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 6:46 pm
A flu with a measly mortality rate of 2.5% and low mutation rate is making everybody running around in circles screaming hell???
This lockdown and other measures is more of a rehersal in controlling people than a real danger.
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:28 pm
“… has turned their country into a police state and destroyer of the environment. They cheat at business and repress their people. They can’t be trusted with biological weapons obviously, as well.” Hmm.
Talking about the US, Sissyfuss? It is an accurate description of Police State Amerika today. At least the Chinese are not destroying the world in the name of “Democracy”. Watching the end of the Amerikan Empire is an interesting way to enjoy my retirement. I am prepared for the coming events, are you?
world supremacist muzzies jerk on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:32 pm
poor fathertard vandenbroeke, hope he’s not made to celebrate world supremacist muzzies bag day as penance.
when people’s trial of global muzzies for crimes against humanity what he said would be evidentally all true
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:39 pm
Food for thought: “I have a hard time ignoring the strange “coincidence” of the high level biohazard labs in Wuhan in favor of the idea that the virus was launched by chance due to the odd diets of central Chinese people…
Only three months ago, John Hopkins, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum (a hive of self-professed globalists) ran a “pandemic simulation” called “Event 201” specifically focused on Coronavirus…a representative from Johnson and Johnson, one of the companies that may end up designing a “vaccine” for the Cronavirus, suggested during Event 201 that a “centralized” global economic authority…
Gee, that sounds strangely similar to what globalists have been demanding for many years now, and the pandemic just happens to offer a perfect excuse for the creation of such a one-world financial authority…The reason why globalists want a collapse is simple – They need crisis in order to manipulate the masses into accepting total centralization, a global monetary system and global governance. They are also rabid believers in eugenics and population reduction…
In terms of delusional optimism on the pandemic itself, the arguments range from “screening of travelers is too comprehensive to allow the virus to spread here” and “as long as the virus destroys China, who cares…?” This is a narrow view of the situation…So, let’s be realistic. If the virus is as communicable as the CDC and independent scientists claim, then we will see the effects here in America…”
http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4081-how-viral-pandemic-benefits-the-globalist-agenda
Where did this virus really start and why was it released shortly after a war game? Only time will tell. Meanwhile, buckle up!
fathertard sullivan on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:42 pm
i support fathertard vandenbroeke for speaking out agsinst supremacist muzzies
i support world supremacist muzzies bag day
supremacist muzzies bag day feb1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:44 pm
tomorrow is world supremacist muzzies bag day.
put a shopping bag over your head when out driving or being outside
put a maple leaf over your genital and put bacon strips over it.
put an underwear over your head if you don’t have a shopping bag.
show your support for supremacist muzzies
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:45 pm
peaky, yes, it is another attempt at total control of the tax slaves and serfs. But 2.5% death rate is not small. At that rate, about 8,000,000 Amerikans would die. What would that do to the US’ already dying economy? A crash and never ending depression, that’s what. Are you prepared for that future, assuming YOU survive? After all, you could be one of the eight million deaths.
Duncan Idaho on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:47 pm
A Coronavirus 2 B would be almost impossible to engineer– we don’t even have a “vaccine” that is remotely effective against SARS or MERS.
Bu the speculation is amusing—–
Duncan Idaho on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 7:50 pm
“Coronaviruses are positive-sense RNA viruses that generate double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) intermediates during replication, yet evade detection by host innate immune sensors.”
JuanP on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 8:23 pm
So, a global nCoV epidemic would probably be good for the economy in the long run if we do nothing. I like this idea of pruning the weak and old. ROFLMFAO! A reduction in global population growth would be welcome, too, even if temporary.
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 8:35 pm
JuanP, and if YOU are a casualty, is it still a good idea?
“Yesterday, the CDC announced that 195 American citizens who returned from the epicenter of the virus outbreak in Wuhan were not under quarantine and would be allowed to leave March Air Reserve Base in California.” The US immune? Don’t make me laugh more than I already do about idiot Amerika.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/senator-calls-immediate-shut-down-all-flights-china-us
“…researchers are finding a surprisingly large number of young people and children infected with the virus who display few or no symptoms – yet they’re still contagious.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/children-stealth-coronavirus-infections-raise-fears-community-outbreaks
What a perfect, as in “designed”, disease! Affects the elderly, weak and stupid, but not kids. They are the innocent carriers. 10 to 14 days before symptoms show, but still contagious, adults. Plenty of time to spread it to your family, friends, co-workers, strangers.
Yes, this IS going to be an even more ‘interesting’ year than I expected on January 1st. Buckle up!
JuanP on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 8:36 pm
This could make Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid last longer. Median age of dead patients is 75, and the vast majority had pre existing medical conditions.
JuanP on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 8:45 pm
I expect this disease to go global. There may still be a very small chance of preventing this, but I think that ship has sailed. The fact that asymptomatic carriers can be contagious for weeks without anyone knowing it makes this disease extremely hard to stop. That is the factor that makes all the difference. If it weren’t for that, I would completely trust the Chinese government to control the problem, but it is simply almost impossible.
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 9:34 pm
Well, with a death rate of ~2%, as stated in several articles, that is a small reduction.
The daily death rate for U.S. in 2018 was ~8 deaths per 1000 people, a 1.22% increase from 2017. or about 2,740,000 deaths annually. If you limit that to the over 65 group of about 50 million, 2% is ~1,000,000 deaths from the virus, max. That is the average per year in the US without the disease. That ‘over 65’ age group grows by ~ 2,000,000 annually. So, little gain for SS and the Meds. (Statista)
BTW: this epidemic is far from over and many many more, of ALL ages, are likely to die. The charts I’ve seen, suggest exponential growth with an indefinite end time. It is just the opening act of the coronavirus tragedy play. More to surely follow.
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 9:39 pm
Too late! The cat is out of the bag! Want to know why? Take a look at world wide airline flights currently in the air.
https://www.flightradar24.com/-14,269.79/2
Too late by weeks, if not months.
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 10:07 pm
“5 Million Cases Worldwide, 650,000 Deaths Annually: The Seasonal Flu Virus is a “Serious Concern”, But the Wuhan Coronavirus Grabs the Headlines”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/flu-bigger-concern-wuhan-virus-grabs-headlines/5701932
When you want to create panic, the USMSM is the best source. What freedom will Amerikans lose this time? We shall see. Stay tuned…
BTW: The new virus is less deadly to older people than the regular flu.
“While flu seasons can vary in severity, during most seasons, people 65 years and older bear the greatest burden of severe flu disease. Approximately 90% of influenza-related deaths and 50-70% of influenza-related hospitalizations occur among people in this age group.” Jun 12, 2019 Google
It’s all relative. Think for yourself when reading supposed ‘experts’. Always ask who is writing their paycheck. That gives you the ‘spin’.
Duncan Idaho on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 10:21 pm
Ok–
https://www.ecohealthalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Wuhan-coronavirus-1536×1293.jpg
makati1 on Thu, 30th Jan 2020 11:53 pm
Duncan, and your assertion is? Lots of diseases in the world and many more to come. This one’s pedigree means nothing to 99.999% of the world’s population.
Nice chart. The world is full of them but they mean little in the real world other than to look at the past. A typical economist does that everyday as he cannot see the future. Ditto for anyone else.
The site pedigree looks OK. A comment would have been nice.
Sissyfuss on Fri, 31st Jan 2020 6:33 pm
Mak,from Nikkei Asian Review, ” CV was spreading person to person mid-December, weeks before China officially confirmed it.” And the natives are getting restless as well. I’m not here to brag up my government , they’re a den of thieves. But I see Trump, Xi,and Putin as autocrats masquerading as the peoples benevolent leaders.