esus Lord...how many people die from the flu, even in first world countries, every winter?

No one gives a rats ass. Now that several people die from "that new, mysterious virus" in China with an equally low mortality rate, the media hype train is at it again.

I'm far, far away from all these "fake news" troublemakers, but this clickbait BS in our media age that we're living in, where only those media outlets survive with the most sensational headlines, is more and more making me want to live like a hermit (if there wasn't this beautiful thing called internet porn).

Sounds like Ebola. Anybody remember that? Spawned a tv show, The Last Ship. That was an awful show based on fearmongers.

I sent that to several friends who are tops in the medical field and they say: take whatever the news is reporting and multiply it by 10. That's what they are not reporting.

"He's coming for you, Larry...the man with no face!!!"

I saw an interview with an Aussie tutor in Wuhan. He was saying 'yeah they shut down the subway, but it's just a nuisance. You news guys are going over the top'
They didn't ask him back for a second interview because it didn't fit their narrative.

Now they're telling us China is lying about the numbers.
Oh! And it spreads before you see symptoms so you don't know who is contagious.

Also Brexit'll tank the economy, the environment will explode and the sun'll go out.

I believe that the Coronavirus could turn out to be very serious indeed.

This from the BBC's Health and science correspondent:

Coronavirus: How worried should we be?

A virus - previously unknown to science - is causing severe lung disease in China and has also been detected in other countries.

More than 100 people are known to have died from the virus, which appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

There are already more than 4,500 confirmed cases, and experts expect the number will keep rising.

A new virus arriving on the scene, leaving patients with pneumonia, is always a worry and health officials around the world are on high alert.

Can this outbreak be contained or is this something far more dangerous?

What is this virus?

Officials in China have confirmed the cases are caused by a coronavirus.

These are a broad family of viruses, but only six (the new one would make it seven) are known to infect people.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), which is caused by a coronavirus, killed 774 of the 8,098 people infected in an outbreak that started in China in 2002.

"There is a strong memory of Sars, that's where a lot of fear comes from, but we're a lot more prepared to deal with those types of diseases," says Dr Josie Golding, from the Wellcome Trust.

How severe are the symptoms?

It seems to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, leads to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment.

Around one-in-four cases are thought to be severe.

Notably, the infection rarely seems to cause a runny nose or sneezing.

The coronavirus family itself can cause symptoms ranging from a mild cold all the way through to death.

"When we see a new coronavirus, we want to know how severe are the symptoms. This is more than cold-like symptoms and that is a concern but it is not as severe as Sars," says Prof Mark Woolhouse, from the University of Edinburgh.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is an emergency in China, but decided not to declare an international public health emergency - as it did with swine flu and Ebola.

Where has it come from?

New viruses are detected all the time.

They jump from one species, where they went unnoticed, into humans.

"If we think about outbreaks in the past, if it is a new coronavirus, it will have come from an animal reservoir," says Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham.

Many of the early coronavirus cases were linked to the South China Seafood Wholesale Market, in Wuhan.

But the earliest documented case, which has been traced back to 1 December, had no connection to the market.

Sars started off in bats and then infected the civet cat, which in turn passed it on to humans.

And Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), which has killed 858 out of the 2,494 recorded cases since it emerged in 2012, regularly makes the jump from the dromedary camel.

Why China?

Prof Woolhouse says it is because of the size and density of the population and close contact with animals harbouring viruses.

"No-one is surprised the next outbreak is in China or that part of the world," he says.

When are people infectious?

Chinese scientists say people are infectious even before their symptoms appear.

The time between infection and symptoms - known as the incubation period - lasts between one and 14 days.

Sars and Ebola are contagious only when symptoms appear. Such outbreaks are relatively easy to stop: identify and isolate people who are sick and monitor anyone they came into contact with.

Flu, however, is the most famous example of a virus that you spread before you even know you're ill.

Prof Wendy Barclay from the department of infectious disease at Imperial College London said it was common for lung infectious to spread without symptoms.

The virus is "carried into the air during normal breathing and talking by the infected person," she explained.

"It would not be too surprising if the new coronavirus also does this."

We are not at the stage where people are saying this could be a global pandemic like swine flu.

But the problems of stopping such "symptomless spreaders" will make the job of the Chinese authorities much harder.

What is not known is how infectious people are during the incubation period.

Could the virus mutate?

Yes, you would expect viruses to mutate and evolve all the time. But what this means is harder to tell.

China's National Health Commission has warned the coronavirus's transmission ability is getting stronger, but they were unclear on the risks posed by mutations of the virus.

This is something scientists will be watching closely.

How have Chinese authorities responded so far?

China has done something unprecedented anywhere in the world - by effectively putting Wuhan into quarantine.

Travel restrictions have also been imposed on a dozen other cities with 36 million people affected.

Some mass gatherings have been banned and tourists sites, including part of the Great Wall, have been closed.

And a ban on the sale of wildlife, a possible source of the infection, has been imposed.

Wuhan - the centre of the outbreak - is building a two new hospitals with beds for a total of 2,300 people.

How worried are the experts?

Dr Golding says: "At the moment, until we have more information, it's really hard to know how worried we should be.

"Until we have confirmation of the source, that's always going to make us uneasy."

Prof Ball says: "We should be worried about any virus that explores humans for the first time, because it's overcome the first major barrier.

"Once inside a [human] cell and replicating, it can start to generate mutations that could allow it to spread more efficiently and become more dangerous.

"You don't want to give the virus the opportunity."

I saw a doctor on TV going on and on about the corona virus. Then the news girl asked how mush more serious was this than the flu. The doctor looked at her and said "this is not as serious as the flu"...

BTW I am sure I had the Corona Premiere Virus last Saturday morning. I was okay by lunch. I think I got it from the limes.

Now I am totally in the mood for World War Z! Seriously, I got my copy off the shelf and I am gonna watch it this afternoon; haven't seen it in years. Watched The Stand a couple months ago when it was released on BluRay.

This might be a problem for China. It won't be a problem for developed countries.