[javagram]

> We've had SARS and MERS before (MERS is way more deadly, yet we didn't enter a global panic). There is something specific about this panic, and it's not the virus; it's a variant of something we've seen before.

Can I suggest some basic reasoning as to why? Do you know which countries MERS spread to and how many people died as a result of MERS since it was first identified?

MERS was first identified in 2012. In 8 years, it has killed about 866 people worldwide.

SARS was first identified in 2002. In 2 years, it has killed 774 people and then disappeared.

SARS-Cov-2, the novel coronavirus, first appeared only 6 months ago in China. Since then, it has killed 100,000s.

How can you suggest that there isn’t more cause for concern over SARS-Cov-2, considering deaths are already at over 100x the other two viruses you mention in far less time, and that this death count comes despite an incredible, unprecedented international campaign to slow the virus?

[pnako]

Granted, this one is tougher, but not that much tougher than a bad strain of influenza.

Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't be doing anything. The catastrophe movie, Hollywood-like global mass hysteria was totally over the top and unwarranted, though.

We have ways to deal with epidemics that don't involve completely changing the rules, talking about "being at war" and so on.

[thefounder]

>>Granted, this one is tougher, but not that much tougher than a bad strain of influenza.

Covid is more contagious and more deadly than what we had so far when both factors are considered. In Italy hospitals were pretty much overwhelmed this year due covid with the number of people dying and the sheer number of infections. Did that happen last year or the year before due influenta/flue season as well?

[rumanator]

> Granted, this one is tougher, but not that much tougher than a bad strain of influenza.

This is simply outright wrong.

https://www.livescience.com/new-coronavirus-compare-with-flu...

Please stop spreading misinformation.

[pnako]

Get lost, seriously.

We all have the same voice here, and I'm "spreading" whatever the heck I want. It's not "misinformation" just because you happen to have a different appreciation of the facts. I don't have to answer to the nerd police, here or elsewhere.

[rumanator]

> We all have the same voice here

We have the same access to a website, sure, but you don't have the right to freely outright lie, specially when confronted with the facts.

Again, don't spread misinformation.

[pnako]

Stop spreading misinformation.