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Coronavirus declared global health emergency by WHO
The new coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.
"The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems.
1st Person-To-Person Spread Of Coronavirus Has Occurred In U.S., CDC Says
Coronavirus: US reports first person-to-person transmission
Chicago health officials have reported the first US case of human-to-human transmission of the deadly coronavirus.
The new patient is the spouse of a Chicago woman who carried the infection back from Wuhan, China, the US Centers for Disease Control said on Thursday.
The discovery marks the second report of the virus in Illinois and the sixth confirmed case in the US.
This paper provides early estimates of 2019-nCoV epidemiological parameters: Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions (open, DOI: 10.1101/2020.01.23.20018549) (DX)
Used model does not offer much grounds for optimism.
Previously:
China Reports 3rd Death, Nearly 140 New Cases of Coronavirus
China Confirms Human-To-Human Transmission of New Coronavirus; CDC Confirms First US Case
Coronavirus: Millions Quarantined in Wuhan City
China Battles Coronavirus Outbreak: All the Latest Updates
In The Pipeline: Coronavirus
Plague Inc. Maker: Don't use our Game for Coronavirus Modeling
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 31 2020, @04:01AM
Influenza kills a larger percentage of people who require hospitalization. We don't know what the overall mortality rate is, but almost certainly less because it's still very likely that most infected people recover without treatment. And it seems that transmission is not very easy either, requiring close contact. When travelers have been found to be infected, they only test the people in adjacent seats, and none have been infected. The flu probably would have infected half the people on the airplane that didn't have immunity.
While this is a new disease and everyone gets excited about new diseases, seasonal flu still kills tens of thousands of people each year, and people have so little concern for it that many people don't even bother with a free vaccination. This has yet to kill anyone outside China and is likely much less dangerous than the flu overall.