(02-28-2020 04:50 PM)banker Wrote:  I'm starting to get a little upset with this coronavirus crap. On average, 36,000 people die ever year from the flu in the United States alone. This thing has killed less than 3,000 and has cost me an inordinate amount of money this week. Can you imagine if this thing, like the flu, killed 36,000 Americans? we would have riots at the Piggly Wiggly, whereas with the flu, nobody, except those affected, cares. Why is one death worse than the other?

It's not even close to Swine Flu levels yet, and that's now a punch line in your local open-mic guy's set every Thursday.

They're going by a kill rate that is incredibly inflated due to it hitting some of the most depressed environments in the world first and there not being the medical infrastructure in some places necessary to combat it. In the developed world and high medical response zones, the kill rate is essentially 1/50th of 1% of healthy individuals pre-exposure (the only deaths reported in France and Italy were of individuals who are high risk, elderly or already exposed to long term health problems or illnesses). The fact that Chinese numbers seem to be tapering off means they've roughly contained the situation (or they're the dumbest government ever established), and the recovery rate is exceptionally high. There is nothing to worry about here unless there is an evolution in the strain...then we've got to start worrying. Swine Flu didn't affect the markets as much because they were already crashing by then, so this is a much different situation than back then.