1 hour ago, DanielG said:

... the hospitals would become not just overwhelmed but extremely overwhelmed with desperately ill people. Even more dying in that case...

This is potentially true with any new virus.  The question is why has the world come to a standstill with this particular virus when it isn't nearly as deadly as some as the other ones we have seen in the past couple of decades?  Those new viruses did not overwhelm the healthcare system even though there were more severe cases and more deaths than projected with Covid-19.

 

The other question is is this going to be the new normal.  Going forward, do we shut everything down every time we find a new virus with a mortality rate higher than influenza?

12 minutes ago, slonezp said:

While our healthcare system in the US may not be perfect, the US prioritizes care going to the most able to pay first. 

Fixed it for you...

Just so we're clear - I took the lowest mortality rate, with some estimates putting it at 2 to 3 percent. It's still several orders of magnitude greater than the flu, even at the lowest demostrated levels. If 1% of the US population gets it, that means there would be 150,000 hospitalizations and 15,000 to 30,000 deaths.

 

MERS and SARS presented earlier and killed more quickly - they weren't hanging around for several days before symptoms. People also took it more seriously because of the dramatic effects.

Shutting everything down is simply due to lack of understanding, lack of preparation and logic working in simple form.....limit congregation, limit exposure. 

To many other issues will arise keeping this game plan long term. 

 

What I don't particularly care to see or hear is panic as it does absolutely nothing but spawn more panic.

One statistic I read said 60,000 people died of the flu last year in the U.S. As of Friday morning, 41 people had died from CV .Why no hysteria with 60,000 but the world is coming to an end with 41???

The thread is getting out of hand.  Please refer to official sites.  Bickering on a fishing site isn't very productive.

The governor of Illinois has ordered the closing of all restaurants and bars in the state. Until the end of March. All K-12 schools are closing as well.

 

This is getting out of hand.