I'm hoping it's just a scare too, although I am not sure that the thousands of people who've died from the illnesses you mention would regard it as "just" another scare story.
Swine flu in 2009 killed at least 20,000 people globally, and most estimates have it closer to 200,000. Could easily have been higher, as some estimates suggest that up to a fifth of all people caught the disease.
What I suspect this means is that people have a low threshold for what makes something scary...
Eventually something is going to kill a lot of us enough. Nature, or whatever you want to call it, will ensure that happens to keep our numbers in check.
Whatever it is that does it we wont know until its right into it. Is this the one - who knows?
//It seems the next big bug that will cull umans will be a Severe acute respiratory syndrome //
If you suffer,already, suffer an acute respiratory problem or have had a coronary bypass this Coronavirus is just as likely to be fatal wherever you live including the UK.
What a silly post. Why would anyone want to scare us annually with artificial threats - there's enough real ones around to do that, and this is obviously one of them. But I suppose that as usual the Doubters and the Dumbs will bury their heads in the ground, dismissing it as scare-mongering, and resist any uncomfortable solutions.
Although it is currently rated to be a relatively mild strain (certainly for those in otherwise good health) the main worry is the timing when so many people are traversing the Country from area to area.
I see Wuhan,a city the size of London, is in Lock down and virtual quarantine as from this evening. The last of four flights a week from Wuhan arrived at LHR this evening and no one was checked out. The passengers were just handed a information leaflet and let on their way.
Years ago when the Sars epidemic was rife my son was on a gap year in S.E.Asia . He was leaving Thailand for Australia before coming home. The Australians would not issue a visa until he was x-rayed and given a clean bill of health in a Thai hospital.At least they take their citizen's health seriously.
I wondered about that flight coming in, too, retro. The passengers were just waved through with no checks, and the leaflet didn't even look like it had anything written in Chinese on it. I'm glad there'll be no more allowed in for the foreseeable.