- The UN health agency declared an international emergency over the deadly coronavirus from China -- a rarely used designation that could lead to improved international coordination in tackling the disease. On January 30th the WHO declared a global health emergency. But, the Coronavirus’ death rate of 2% is much greater than that of influenza (0.13%). In addition, at least 1,795 of the confirmed cases of Coronavirus are considered “severe,” meaning patients are hospitalized in serious or critical condition. Third, there may be an insidious reason at play here as well, which has to do with fear of the unknown.

Source: Forbes February 01, 2020 14:26 UTC