I don’t think we yet have reliable data on the m

I don’t think we yet have reliable data on the mortality rate of novel Coronavirus. It appears that it will not be as deadly as SARS or MERS; but, data from China are not reliable and what we have seen from them may be understated. Secondly, we have no vaccine yet. With the flu, we have the capability to produce vaccines for any strains that appear in the wild. Would that most of the population would avail themselves of the vaccine to produce herd immunity. They don’t now and too many people needlessly die from influenza because of that, particularly the old and young.

I would also note that the Spanish flu killed 50-100 million people, 3-5% of the population in 1918. Pandemics are real and worrisome.

No need to panic at the moment until we have better data as to what we are dealing with; but, even if this is no worse than the flu, it is a major public heath problem just as influenza is.