Originally Posted by JGRaider

That's all well and good, but has nothing to do with the fact that these pandemics rage on, without being in the public eye every minute of every day, yet they still kill hundreds of thousands of people every year. Why no hysteria over this?


Because of my second paragraph, quoted in part here
Originally Posted by CanadianLefty
..
.Covid-19 is different that the pandemics cited. It is, as you mention, new. There is no vaccine. There are no drug cocktails that dramatically extend life or prevent you from contracting it. Covid-19 is highly contagious and has fewer barriers to transmission. While it's still early, it appears to be as contagious as the flu, maybe more so. There are early case studies that report the virus lasts up to 3 hours airborne and several days on surfaces like plastic, even stainless steel. People die within days, some within weeks. It has the ability to clog the health care system, quickly: see the chart below for this explanation-

Why canceling events and self-quarantining is so important


The public health advice is unambiguous; the current dramatic disruptions are a necessary reaction to the clear, present and growing danger of Covid-19 for the reasons stated above.