[cowmoo728]

This appeared to cross some threshold where it really scared people. Personally, the flu scared me. Motor vehicle deaths and hospital acquired infections also terrified me. Those were already above my personal threshold where I thought the risk was pretty bad. I would already maintain a wide berth around anyone coughing or visibly sick.

There's also some paranoia because this is new, and because of the fear of asymptomatic carriers. That makes people think they're helpless and have no way of protecting themselves. A loss of control is an important factor in creating terror.

That being said, this virus does truly appear worse. Wherever that fear threshold is for people, this virus has crossed it.

[2008guy]

It is worse for sure. I was stuck in a hotel for the past two months so all I did was watch cnn. It was amazing to see the sentiment of the language on cnn actually become politically neutral as the disease spread in the US. That was when i really knew that this is something big. Anderson cooper actually defended Donald trump in a minor but explicit way at one point and I thought I was dreaming. The people at cnn were definitely scared for a little while there.