If your barometer of public health is the Dow, no wonder you're scared. Of the 35 confirmed cases in the US, five have recovered, none have died, and only one is hospitalized.
Let's see, that means each patient is good for how many points on the Dow?
@Smokin Joe One of my first job out of college had epidemiological reporting inteactions requirments with the CDC at the State Level. One old salty guy in Atlanta I sometimes dealt with told me that some of the media genreated mania generated was more of a overall health detriment tham the disease itself. OF course this was just a few years after the Swine Flu mania debacle of the mid to late 1970's.
My honest opinion? There are three key things to watch.....
(1) Communicability of the infection vector....
(2) Mortality rate. 60 or so days in, nothing is giving me any indication that this thing is exceeding the 2-3% Mortaity Rate. If this continues, this will not be that much more impactful than a normal seasonal flu, which has a 2%, +. or - some change.
(3) And most important, the mutation abilty of the virus. (1) and (2) now seem managable, in its impact on society. All bets are off if (3) show change.