Just so people have context for how serious of a situation that the Corona virus is and potentially could be.

The coronavirus has a 2% death rate by the best estimates. That is 20 times higher than the flu. In most years we have a decent understanding of which strain of the flu is lost likely to hit and can vaccinate against it which is usually somewhat effective.

The flu (and Corona) don't kill you through their effects. They kill you because you develop pneumonia as a secondary infection. They can give you antibiotics but they aren't effective against viral pneumonia.

The only treatment for severe cases is to put patients on respirators. Even in a normal flu season, hospitals are at or near capacity for respirators. So now we are dealing with a more infectious disease that is 20 times more lethal than the normal flu. There simply aren't enough respirators in the US to deal with a disease like this.

The CDC has now said it is a matter of when this hits, not if. So when it does hit there is a legit chance that it spreads extremely fast and major government intervention will be needed.

The 1918 flu hit hard in the spring of 1918. It then went away for the better part of the summer. The worst impact that flu had was the following fall and thought the winter and spring of 1919. The Spanish flu infected almost 2 billion people globally. It is estimated that 50 million died as a result. That is a 2% death rate.

Modern medicine doesn't really help too much. The treatment is to let it run its course, give antibiotics to prevent bacterial pneumonia, hope viral pneumonia doesn't happen, and worst case put the patient on a respirator.

We are at a major inflection point for this disease. If it actually hits the US or goes global (many people think this is inevitable) then you will absolutely know someone who dies of this.

Just imagine that you know 500 people. 10 of those people will be dead by this time next year if this actually goes global.

That is fucking wild.