They suggest that viruses are less of a problem all of the rest of the year. Predictions of 200,000 new viruses sound scary and may excite the media, but they do not help IT managers. Furthermore, the number of viruses is not a scientific method of measuring the level of the threat. Predictions like these focus on date-related payloads. Viruses are also a problem on days when the payload isn't set to trigger.
Viruses are a problem every day of the year.
Companies could be hit by thousands of viruses. It will be business as usual if companies are sensible about viruses all the other days of the year. This is not a problem specific to Y2K, as any virus which altered the computer's clock at any time of year could potentially corrupt data. Y2K viruses are as destructive as the Y2K problem. In fact, viruses are entirely different from the Y2K problem and cannot be considered comparable.