Planes were supposed to fall out of the air at 00:01 Jan 1, 2000.

@Hanno

Yep, I understand it's "much more contagious with higher mortality rate". But if that is completely true and as serious as they say, why aren't we up in the millions of cases yet?

49 million in the US had no-name flu in 2018 and 80,000 of them died. Yet America only has 3000 confirmed Coronavirus cases and 57 deaths so far. Tell me again how COVID-19 is so much worse?!

@Hanno

Also, I've been told that the "mortality rate" is derived by looking at how many have died as compare to how many have recovered. They do NOT look at how many die vice confirmed cases. That would make too good of sense and would not cause the hysteria.

When in the early stages of the virus (before the majority have recovered), the "mortality rate" is deceptively high. That's because the ones who had it first probably didn't get early treatment, not knowing what they had. And that was especially devastating to the ones with other serious health issues - which are the majority of those who have died.

Once they figured it out - how to treat it and who was in greatest danger - many more people start recovering vice dying. And when more people recover and less people die, the "mortality rate" drops precipitously.

But if the overall number of confirmed cases never gets into the millions, that means there's less risk of catching it to begin with. It also means there's a smaller number to compare deaths to recoveries. So, yeah, a higher "mortality rate."

The hype is causing over-reaction/hysteria because of how they choose to publicize their statistics to make it look and sound earth-shatteringly apocalyptic. It's time for citizens to quit trusting the MSM and political leadership. They have an agenda to make themselves look indispensable and irreplaceable. It's called job security and advancement.

As more people catch on to their crying "wolf!" and "the sky is falling" every time we turn around, there will be less hysteria and the people will get rid of the frauds and replace them with those who will actually SERVE to public interest. That's what's happening with America right now under Trump.

It is because Covid 19 has only been around three month... whereas the other strains have been around for years. So the big ramp up is still coming. We can slow it down though.

You can calculate the mortality rate yourself. Simply divide the deaths with the reported infections. You will see it varied between less than 1% for South Korea to 6% for Italy.
That number of course vary so much because age plays a big role in mortality and it is amplified by the small sample sets.

Otherwise I agree with you, like I said, we need action, however it needs to be sensible, not the politicking that is going on now.

I'm totally sold on your number two - as far as the US goes. Standing back and looking at the big picture, I firmly believe this is the next thing the Dems and media were able to latch onto after the impeachment & Russiagate failed. Trump is "damned if he does and damned if he doesn't" declare a national emergency. So he has to start playing political chess with the enemy and figure out which way he can sustain less damage.

But the Dems & media actually want the hysteria as well as wanting the economy to fail. They believe that's the only way they can regain control of the Presidency & the congress. And it must happen before November. They must keep the pressure on and put his every move and word under the microscope. They know that they have nothing positive to offer America when it comes to their policies and their candidates.

When this blows over in a month or two, there will be something else - at least 1, 2, or even 3 other things that the Dems and media will throw at Trump and America to prove that we need a new President. Nothing will work. Everything, including this COVID-19 hysteria, will only backfire on the Dems & media. And Trump's landslide will only increase along with more congressional seats being taken back.

I believe the reasons for "panic" are myriad. First we have many (probably a majority) of people who are unprepared both emotionally and in a practical sense for bad times. So when bad stuff happens they either become paralyzed and paranoid or they run amok in confusion and fear adding to the already bad events effects. Then there are people who seek to exploit such events for either political or financial gain - or both. There are also people who (to steal a line from a Batman movie) are nihilistic and Sadistic who "just want to see the world burn".
There are a number of factors that lead to "panic mode". First there is ignorance. People naturally fear the "unknown" more than anything else. They don't know what the problem is and therefore they don't know how to fight it or how to resolve it. So they fall back to their basic instincts - fight or flight and neither is good nor productive. Another factor is an intrinsic sense of helplessness. This would describe people who subconsciously depend on others (government and community of neighbors and family) to "take care of them". An example of this would be the thousands of people who literally stayed put waiting for Gov't to rescue them as the flood waters from the Katrina hurricane rose above the roofs of their homes. Go figure.
I am reminded of another line from another movie (can't remember the name of the movie) - goes like this: "fortune favors the prepared mind". This line says a LOT about human nature.

@iThink. “Fortune favors the prepared mind.”― Louis Pasteur

that seems like a helpful idea - never thought about it myself...probably because I am retired. LOL