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Originally Posted by Frownland
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^ Yep, that's a lot of depressing news. The coronavirus is not looking good; as numbers of cases keep jumping, it's looking like an extremely contageous
virus. That China is "locking down" a city of 11 million indicates how serious the situation is.
Maybe we can take some small comfort from these figures though:-
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With global attention on the Wuhan coronavirus and its spread around China and other countries, it's important to put it in the context of other deadly infections -- including seasonal influenza, which claims the lives of thousands of people every year.
According to a September 2019 study by Chinese scientists published in The Lancet, there are about 88,100 influenza-related deaths every year in China, with a mortality rate of between 1.6% and 2.6%. The majority of those who died as a result of the flu were aged over 60, the report said.
While the true extent of the new coronavirus is unclear, it appears to be more deadly than seasonal influenza. Of the 1,317 cases confirmed globally as of noon Saturday in China, there had been 41 deaths, a mortality rate of 3.1%.
However, that is far less deadly than related coronaviruses SARS and MERS. SARS has a mortality rate of about 10%, while MERS killed 34% of those infected.
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