Context would also be nice. The 2017-2018 seasonal flu killed 61,000. The 2018-2019 season killed 34,000. So far this flu season 12,000 have died. Oh yeah, that’s the United States alone. This coronavirus has been attributed to 1,300 deaths, basically none of which are in the US.
I doubt they are accurately reporting the source too. They have a biological weapons development facility in Wu Han. Surprise, surprise!
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Why are you deflecting? Just covering up for how wrong you were to start with?
Unlike the flu this disease is just getting started and the number of deaths is not even close to the only problem.
Highly unlikely this is any sort of a bio weapon. I would not be at all surprised though to find out it was something being studied in a local lab that managed to get out into the public.
Wrong? How was I wrong? You’ve bought into the hysteria and are ignoring facts and context. Enjoy that Kool Aid.
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LOL. Armchair epidemiologist here. “Just getting started.” You have to be using satire. I hope. Nah, you really do think you have some magical insight into this that scientists and disease specialists don’t. Sad.
Quick question if I may: What is the difference between a Corona virus and a Retrovirus? I mean, both are similar in that they have positive-sense ss RNA, both have a lipid envelope ad glycoproteins…I tried looking it up but I couldn’t really find anything.
I think the major factor why people are freaking out is that there is no vaccine for this particular virus. If you’re in an impoverished community, are immunocompromised, etc. this might be a bigger deal than to someone who is perfectly healthy. I’m just saying.
ETA: That and the virus has many virulence factors, such as mutating at a high rate. It’seems like shooting a moving target.
A retrovirus is a class of RNA viruses. The coronavirus is a family of RNA viruses. Coronaviruses are not retroviruses, however.
In retroviruses, the viral RNA is converted back to DNA (I say “back” because typically DNA is translated into RNA), which is then spliced into the host DNA. The host doesn’t know any better, so that spliced DNA is then translated into viral RNA. That RNA is then used to make proteins/replicate.
Coronaviruses also use RNA, but there is no backward translation into DNA or splicing of host DNA. The viral RNA uses the host to replicate additional RNA and make proteins/replicate.
A retrovirus changes the genes/DNA of the host it infects (HIV is probably most well known example). The coronavirus (technically called a positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus) does not.
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Here is the latest map of the virus. See those little dots in the non-China countries? They’ve been pretty much the same for a couple weeks now.
An initial breakout from the region (aided by the global travel network) followed by practically stasis everywhere except China.
That’s not the sign of a virus about to go hog wild or one that (in one claim I heard) seems ready to infect 60% of the world’s population.
Stay on top of it? Yes
Fear it/panic over it/over hype it? Not in the slightest.
Of course…doing the latter keeps eyeballs on media sites…
I’m not ignoring anything.
Why do you think over 50 countries now have enacted travel bans and quarantines?
This is serious, we still don’t know just how serious but it’s already proven to be deadlier than SARS.
It first appeared in November and was first made public in December.
It’s a brand new virus.
Does anyone know where can I find stats on race, gender and ages of those worst affected by the virus? That data doesn’t come up in searches.
The real question about the effects of the coronavirus is the number of people who will be infected. In the case of the flu, there have been about 20 million cases and about 20,000 deaths. There coronavirus has 66492 reported cases and 1523 deaths, which means that at the reported death rate is about 20 times higher than that of the flu. The US could see several hundred thousand deaths if the coronavirus becomes as common as the typical flu.
There is evidence that the coronavirus is more contagious than the flu. In addition, since the virus is new, people are unlikely to have immunity based on previous exposure to similar viruses.
The extreme measures in China may be successful in controlling the coronavirus, but the consequences of a failure to control could be enormous.
The Chinese government has a policy of severely restricting any news that they find to be unfavorable or embarrassing. That has certainly been the case with the coronavirus, and the policy allowed the virus to spread rapidly in secrecy before the government belated admitted that there was a crisis. Private individuals that have reported information that contradicts the official version of events continue to disappear:
The spread of the virus continues to accelerate in China in spite of extreme measures that have locked down the entire country. If the government continues to be unsuccessful in controlling the disease, it demonstrates that the policy of restricting free speech and centralized command and control are inherently flawed.
Right now the government has been pinning the blame on local officials, who have little real power:
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The Chinese government created this virus in a biological warfare lab. 
A similar virus has been found in bats according to researchers:
It is possible that a research facility was studying the bat virus and accidently released the virus. Alternatively the virus may have come from live bats sold as food at markets in Wuhan.
It is also possible that a strain of virus weaponised by the biological weapons research lab escaped and they injected it afterwards into bats to have a fall-species that doesn’t look like biological weapons researchers
