[dhuffman@awod.com]

Yep. A 'pandemic' with perhaps three thousand cases in a world population of six-ish billion. Truly...

[Cicero]

I hate to sound pessimistic, but I think a pandemic is inevitable. It has already clearly escaped the half-hearted attempts to contain it.

Although I haven't seen anything in print, it strikes me that it may prove to be seasonal, like colds and flu (and in earlier times the plague). If so, it may not really break loose until next fall.

[ex-Texan]

If the virus is mutating it may starting killing greater percentages of the population. Recall the Spanish Flu of 1918. It had a death rate of only 2.5%. Yet it killed 20 million people. Toward the end, the flu mutated and was killing 28% of its victims.

This article is intended to calm the masses. "Not to worry, it is overseas and not here, and anyway we almost have a hand on it ..."

That is the same thing the WHO experts were saying when the nasty disease was confined to Hong Kong. Only were 100 victims then. That was just 3 weeks ago.