One of the articles I read said the virus can mutate... it can go the way of the common cold and get weaker or it could mutate and get more deadlier.
I don't know how much that should influence how we look at this. What if it mutated and got deadlier. What are the chances of it doing something like that? What if the chance of it doing that is even?
It certainly seems like something that is not good to have in the general population, to spread at a basketball game or however.
ANY virus can mutate, from Ebola to the common cold.
Influenza mutates commonly, so commonly that the vaccines proffered each year contain varying hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N) subtypes, sometimes successfully anticipating that year's subtypes, sometimes not.
In most viral outbreaks, the mutations have been away from more deadly to more contagious forms.
The first person to die in the US, was in Washington State, two weeks ago. Forty nine have died as of this morning, over half related to that facility in Washington.
To put that in perspective, in the US in the same time, some 240 people have been killed in pedestrian/vehicle accidents:
You are roughly 5 times more likely to die crossing the street.
In that time period, using average numbers, 1530 people have died in car accidents.
You are 50 times more likely to get killed driving to the store looking for toilet paper or bottled water than of the virus.
No one in the US under 40 has died of the virus.
Now being in the under 40 age group is a dim memory for me, but I remain unconcerned because of the virus itself, and far more worried about the effects of the ginned up panic over it.
It is inherently obvious that there are political motivations to destroy the economy, crash the markets and generally cause pain to people in America, that can and will be used for political purposes.
After all,
Never let a crisis go to waste!--even if you have to create it!