I don't know what was worse. The fact that he thought that something from Japan 35 years ago has been affected with a virus new to science in the last year or the fact that he thought China and Japan were the same thing.

Add Big Ears to the list of festivals that have been cancelled.

Wow. You bummed?

I wasn't able to go this year because I did poor planning and hotel costs got expensive real fast, but it sucks for the people who made arrangements and I hope that this doesn't impact the future of the festival.

Sad but very responsible and respectful of the most vulnerable.

Hopefully March Madness will put sanity in front of $$$ and play in empty arenas or cancel the tournament.

OMG please do.

I doubt it will. Right now is the most important time to put the breaks on because we desperately need to buy time. It’s a horrible time to have the government we have and I’m afraid taking responsibility will split along political and cultural lines.

I can't be the only one who finds this to be yet another insane overreaction to a virus that, while deserves to be treated with caution, doesn't deserve to grind the world to a halt on account of it.

Among people under the age of 60 there's less than a 1% chance of dying. Most people who die have pre-existing conditions that leave them immunocompromised. If the WHO wants to properly manage the health care system capacity they could start by, rather than asking the entire world to shut down and causing a panic where everyone goes to the hospital because of Coronavirus, informing the public that if you're under the age of 50, you really probably don't need to seek out medical assistance. Bed rest, avoid contact with other people, you'll be fine. In the same way that when I get the flu, I don't go to the hospital because there's a very slim chance that I won't recover on my own. The only difference between Corona and the flu here is the level of panic. Older people should be advised to go to the hospital when they exhibit symptoms.

Cancelling everything and grinding the world to a halt is a solution that will sort of work for a month. Vaccines take a long time to develop, more than a year. In the meantime, what is the plan? Are we going to continue to cancel workplaces, universities, sporting events, music festivals, and any other social event around the world for the next year+?

And while everything else is being cancelled, the essential businesses which must remain open (supermarkets, airports, restaurants, etc.) will continue to be a hub that spreads the virus.

Businesses will be asked to lose billions of dollars to contain the virus. And it's not like we can just wait it out a month, slow down the progression of the virus, and then re-open everything and all is well. The virus which was still spreading around the peripheries of our society (supermarkets, restaurants, airports, etc.) will be reintroduced to those large social gatherings.

So, to this current solution I say: good luck with that. They must be banking on the warming weather killing off the virus, cause otherwise this seems like a sorry ass excuse for a long term solution. To me at least.

Ok Donald.

You should ask yourself these questions:
1. Is it the pandemic that happens occurs ever 100 year?
2. Is it practice run for a real 100 year pandemic that could more than likely happen?
3. Is it man-made? Perhaps a virus that was being experimented on and was either released accidentally, on purpose or accidentally on purpose?
4. Should you scoff at something that seems harmless now, but perhaps become a health crisis that could spiral out of control?
5. Could the virus eventually mutate into some unstoppable, uncontrollable?