China screwed the pooch. The only reason their numbers are so high is because they denied it for so long and allowed it to spread. Hong Kong I trust a little more...their numbers are stabilizing. They've had more people released from hospitals than have been admitted over the past few days. If we want to look at Canada, they've had 267 probable and suspect cases in Ontario since the start of the outbreak; 124 remain in hospital or under active surveillance in their homes. That doesn't exactly scream to me that this is spreading like wildfire. And bear in mind, a lot of these cases came about before China admitted to the cover up, so no preventative measures were in place in these countries.
What I laugh at are the ones who keep saying, "Boy, if several million folks get this, it would overwhelm our health care system!" Yes, and that would also happen if meteors all destroyed half the hospitals in the US at the same time. There have been about 40 cases in the US, no deaths. I don't think those numbers would even overwhelm the smallest hospital in the country. Lots of the US cases haven't even -needed- hospitalization.
I know this is a nasty bug. I just don't see it wiping out a good chunk of civilization. And if we trust "projections", well hey, tell me definitively what the stock market's gonna do in the next 6 months and I'll kiss you full on the lips. (no tongue :)
I don't know a single person in medicine or science who isn't concerned about SARS and those I do know who have the inner rings on this race to the cure/death are scared.
I am wondering what, exactly, the Chinese bioterror team was working on and if someone bogarted a test tube.