A reader who calls himself (herself?) Quaesiveris submitted this comment in response to someone else’s comment about the seeming overabundance of coronavirus information. I truly hope I’m wrong, but I fear that Q is correct.
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China’s economy is crashing and possibly will be taking the global supply chain (and economy) down with it
Quaesiveris
I don’t think that the topic is getting tiresome. I find it morbidly fascinating that, due to this pandemic, China’s economy is crashing and possibly will be taking the global supply chain (and economy) down with it…
(Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/china-disintegrating-steel-demand-property-sales-traffic-all-approaching-zero)
Besides… flues (i.e. ducts, pipes or openings in chimneys) with pictures of birds and pigs on them sounds interesting to me, since I must admit, I’ve never heard of or seen such things before. 
But yes, Centurion, really and with all flu, I mean, due respect, you need to check your premise because no, the Covid-19 is not “killing” less than “normal” flu.
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor or epidemiologist, and I’m not about to play one here… what I’m about to share is not medical advice, it’s mere recollections from what I’ve very recently read at various sources.
The reason that I’m replying to your comment is that it may create a wrong impression about the seriousness of this pandemic with some readers by having unfairly compared the number of deaths from “normal” flu during an entire year to a pandemic that only started about two months ago, and apparently based on that unfair comparison decided that there’s not valid reasons for concern. Let’s both revisit this page after about 10 months, and then compare the number of fatalities for the past year, shall we?
As Albert Allen Bartlett said “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.”
Almost exponential growth of Covid-19 cases means that the “fun” 
is about to begin for the Covid-19 pandemic party with *case rates likely doubling about every 6-7 days.
(*Source: American College of Emergency Physicians
https://www.acep.org/by-medical-focus/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/)
Consider the “wheat/rice on the chessboard problem” to better understand what’s about to happen. (Granted, the spread of Covid-19 won’t be truly exponential due to various epidemiology modeling factors such as “contact rate”, “infection rate”, disease period, fatality rate etc. )
Important to keep in mind that Covid-19 is a “novel” (new) variation of the Corona virus i.e. before “Patient Zero” nobody’s had it before, therefore unlike common strains of “normal” flue most people are susceptible / have no immunity against this new pandemic.
Then consider the R0 (“R-nought”) Basic Reproduction Number:
The 1918 “influenza” pandemic that killed 50 million worldwide had an R0 of 2-3 whereas (depending on the source) Covid-19 is estimated to have an R0 of between 1.4 & 6.6.
Add to your comparison an incubation period of about 14 days for the Covid-19 virus during which it is highly infectious whereas with “normal” flu you are infectious about a day before showing symptoms, and for the most part infectious for about 3-4 days after the onset of symptoms.
Before we discuss and compare the fatality rate… keep in mind that whistle-blower reports and anecdotal evidence of cremations etc. strongly suggest that the Chinese are under-reporting cases and fatalities, whereas the CDC stats annual fatalities of “normal” flu in the US are sometimes over-reported due to the inclusion of pneumonia cases (thereby creating a fear factor that boosts Big Pharma vaccine sales… but that’s another topic)
Besides the suspect reporting of stats, how the fatality rate of Covid-19 is calculated also varies. It seems that for Covid-19 most do it as dead/cases=2.3% (biased low) but some like the Taiwanese(?) prefer dead/(dead+recovered)=18.8% (biased high) so perhaps we should use the average of the two, i.e. a fatality rate of 10.54%.
(Source: https://twitter.com/NoisyTurtle2600/status/1227914546905436165?s=20 )
Depending on your source of stats for annual fatalities in the US from “normal” flu the fatality rate = about 0.05%
(This is based on a report of 10000 dead / 31.4 million annual outpatient visits for flu + 200000 hospitalizations etc. = the fatality rate for “normal” influenza in the US is about 0.05%. (To be generous, since I calculated it at less, but it’ll suffice as a rough estimate that clearly illustrates the point.)
Thus comparing Fatality rates:
Covid-19 = 2.3% – 18.8% for an average of 10.54%.
“Normal” flu in US = about 0.05%
So, Centurion… would you perhaps like to reconsider what you wrote?
(i.e. “Really? This one is “killing” less than those who die every year from “normal” flu. Give me a break.”)
Consider that Covid-19’s 2.3% fatality rate is 46 times more deadly than that of the “normal” flu at 0.05%.
Consider that effective containment is impossible. Why? Because of asymptomatic infected persons. The strict, draconian containment will slow the pandemic down, but it can’t stop it… it will spread to the rest of the world.
Give credit where credit is due… and kudos for trying, i.e. the truly unprecedented in the history of the world, incredible Chinese government response of locking down an entire city of 11 million people, then 60+ million people etc.
Consider what will happen not if, but when, this pandemic hits Africa, that is utterly unprepared and will not be able to cope (the first asymptomatic case of a non-citizen has already been registered in Egypt) etc. etc.
In the US, the CDC Director already warned that it will become widespread throughout the US
(Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/health/its-coming-cdc-director-warns-coronavirus-become-widespread-throughout-united-states)
I can go on explaining but I’ll end by briefly addressing your last point. Ebola has an R0 of 1.5-2.5 spreads via body fluids so in that sense, indeed, Ebola is not as bad (since Covid-19 spreads via Airborne droplets with a possibly higher R0), however, Ebola is far, far worse in terms of prognosis with 25%-90% mortality.
So… tiresome? Yes… I agree, the sensationalism of the mainstream media as well as blogs using this as click-bait… definitely tiresome, and so too uninformed or misinformed comments but, we’re all here to share and learn. 
Bottom line: No need to worry. Just wash your hands regularly with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer and cover your mouth when you cough, preferably with something other than your hand. Stay informed, stay away from crowds and when it arrives in your area, wear a mask (that fits properly) in public and remember goggles (Covid-19 can spread via contact with your eyes – glasses or goggles will at least keep you from touching ’em.)
This too shall pass.
Best wishes,
Quaesiveris
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February 15, 2020 at 12:16PM
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