The official death rate is 2%
SARS death toll was 10%

@BikerPetehall70 yes thanks - from what I recently heard in an interview SARS more or less died out on its own because it had a relatively short incubation span. the COVID-19 has a much longer span of time before it becomes inert. 14 days is what I believe is the "official" word on that. SARS was nothing at all like that which means that rapid response quarantine pretty much nipped it in the bud. No so with this bug...hmm?

Theyre taking containment & disinfection to extremes in china @iThink we only getting snippets

@BikerPetehall70
[sciencealert.com]

according to this study it looks like the COVID - 19 can last on hard surfaces for more than a week . SARS I believe was less than a day or so.

The Chinese are known to be less than "transparent" and forthcoming about things that go on inside their land mass. Hard to know what to believe...like many people I tend to think the worst and hope for the best

@iThink multiply Chinese figures by power 10 minimum

@BikerPetehall70 to the 10th power is exponential - that would be in the tens of millions. It might be that high sooner or later but I doubt its that high right now.

looks like a very important and good conference to hold - if you are implying Bill Gates along with others intentionally released this COVID-19 I think you're wrong. The timing of it might seem highly suspicious to anyone who already holds a paranoid mistrust of Gates et al...
I just do not live in fear of "rich people" and it just seems silly to me that anyone could think there would be some perverted motive on the part of Gates and others to do something like that. What could they possibly hope to gain by such an act? Takes a twisted psyche to think up something like that IMHO.

@iThink I never implied he had anything to do with it. Just sharing the article and interested in hearing others take on it.

@FEWI oh ok

The packaging and the products themselves might not be a conduit for the disease but the people handling those packages are. The virus has a long incubation period. Recently I have heard 14 days. So in theory a "contaminated" package or product might be handled by as many as 20 different people before it gets to your front door and each person who handled that package might have been contaminated...sooo there is a remote possibility of getting infection from international shipments. IMHO

It seems to transfer as easily as flu or common cold @iThink you touch your face then a surface next person touches surface, its on your hands, we are always putting hands to our faces without noticing as we do it so much

@BikerPetehall70 I have a personal friend from Myanmar. He was told to wear eye protection as well when going out in public. If one carrying the virus coughs in your vicinity, the virus can enter through the eyes

Yep @FEWI I have a friend out there his company evacuated all staff from wusang just before lockdown, moved whole operation to Tibet border area

@iThink a live virus can not live any longer than 4 days on any surface...incubate inside a human host for 14 days yes.

@Dmwils

[sciencealert.com]

New Study Indicates How Long Coronaviruses Can Survive on a Surface
CARLY CASSELLA13 FEB 2020
If the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV (now also called COVID-19 virus) is anything like its family members, a new study suggests it could survive on inanimate objects for well over a week.

@iThink

So, the answer is to choose the cheapest shipping option when ordering items from China. It will take well over a month to arrive. If the virus can survive that long without a host, we may be in a spot of trouble!

@iThink if you read further into your article that's the high end and more apt to be about 4 days on surfaces such as plastic. This virus needs to be watched but it is not, at this point, one to lose sleep over.

@WorldSigh I was thinking about the chain of people who package the items and handle to boxes all the way to your doorstep. So it isn't only the package it is the contamination of every subsequent person who handles the package...see what I mean?

@iThink I understand your thought process but believe me as a nurse of 35 years there is really no way they can happen.

@Dmwils It can happen if COVID-19 has a uniquely long incubation period and according to some people it is somewhere above 4 days - not hours but days. That means that infected but asymptomatic people will be spreading the disease unbeknownst to themselves and public health and emergency services.
Nevertheless, I do believe the biggest threat to the West is not parcels or packages coming from Asia but it is the people - the human asymptomatic carriers of the virus.