I might be the only one on the forum taking the contrarian view, but there are quite a few who share it , I have never felt less afraid of a health scare.
So the annual death toll in the UK is routinely about 500,000 , about 10 thousand a week. So far this virus has killed about 600 people in a month, not alot relatively and the likelyhood is that alot of these 600 are people who were likely to be part of this years 500,000 anyway. Now if the virus has the potentiality to kill 250,000 thats a significant number but its likely again that these are just apples waiting to fall off the tree anyway , without meaning to be heartless or unsympathetic. So whats the big deal ?
Clearly the immediate concern is mitigating the devastation this virus causes to our society, "smoothing the curve", creating the impression the government is in control , averting panic , stopping civil unrest and inserting the police and military into positions to control things and preserve calm.
Imagine if the government did nothing , it is conceivable that the NHS would be overrun , lots of people would be ill and dieing , people would panic, there would be chaos, the mechanics of society would disintegrate , society would cease to function as we know it ,there would be a real food shortage, desperate people would do desperate things to survive and it would be cataclismic.
Smoothing the curve with save lives as the limited NHS resources will be able to save more lives over an extended time but still alot of people will die and unless people completely self isolate until the virus disappears then the assumption is that most people are going to have it, given treatment some will survive and some will still die. But its maintaining an orlderly system where society still has the capacity to cope rather than descending into anarchy.
So i would say "it is just another virus" because strictly speaking it is just another virus , one of many and there will innevitably be worse to come.
What is does reveal is how vulnerable we are , i mean our NHS was supposedly on the brink of collapse before this even started . What happens when something happens that really does disrupt the food supply chain , its only a matter of time.
So im not concerned about this health scare either , im more worried about the next one that will kill indiscriminantly and will be like a zombie film.