At this point in time, based on the available data, this is much more media hysteria than a true emergency. Unless China is completely fabricating the numbers, this particular strain of coronavirus does not appear to be significantly more virulent than typical strain. It does not approach the severity of SARS or MERS and as of now has a transmission rate (R0 to keep it simple) that is somewhat high, but still much lower than SARS.
This could change. It could hit a huge population center, mutate and become more severe/transmissible. China could be drastically underreporting and we already have an emergency. I think both of those are unlikely.
As of now, it’s 99% hysteria and 1% real concern.
