If one thing has spread faster than the new coronavirus from Wuhan, China, it is worldwide fear of the novel bug. But as evidence of the severity and transmissabilty of 2019-nCoV trickles in, infectious-disease experts say it’s appearing less menacing than first thought, maybe more like seasonal flu than, say, SARS. “We don’t freak out about seasonal flu, we experience it every year,” said Matthew Miller, a microbiologist who studies viruses at McMaster University. “The people most likely to die from seasonal flu are the elderly and the very young … The same is very likely to be true with this new coronavirus outbreak. Of course, even seasonal flu takes a heavy toll, and the Wuhan coronavirus is dispersing among a human population never exposed to it before, meaning people have no immunity.

Source: National Post February 04, 2020 00:45 UTC