[aristeides]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my impression is that it's not even quite established yet that the suspect new coronavirus is the cause of the disease. Until the cause is conclusively established, I don't think we can have a test.

[Dog Gone]

Reading the story, it sounds like something that was rushed out in the hope that it is a diagnostic test. I hope that is something more than a PR stunt.

[InShanghai]

...Dr. Plummer is still skeptical that the new coronavirus is the answer. His lab has studied over 2,000 specimens and has found the coronavirus in less than 50 per cent of specimens from SARS patients.

In our data, the association between coronavirus and this disease seems to be getting weaker, rather than stronger," he said.

Taken from: British Columbia lab first to unlock suspected SARS virus

I think there is a lot of information missing, which leads to a lot of speculation. That leaves plenty of room for us armchair doctors, and the media, to guess. IMO, this virus/pathogen could be out of control already and we are only seeing the controlled, hospitalized cases.

The symptoms could be different (milder, no fever, and without pneumonia) for each case or group of cases. There could be many more people with SARS and we would never know it.

The symptoms are used to sort the cases. Therefore the only SARS virus/pathogen carriers we'll see are the ones exhibiting the extreme distress caused by the virus/pathogen. If this is the case, then maybe the numbers rank up there with influenza instead of a killer epidemic.

Once again, it makes me question the motives of the World Health Organization (a branch of the now defunct UN).