I 100% agree with the WHO and CDC warnings. From your link:

> Containing the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic should still be everyone’s “top priority”

I agree. But the WHO also has an issue with people's insane reaction which are hurting the response, not helping:
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/03-03-2020-shortage-of-...

In fact, they published a guide on what to do:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331215/WHO-...

It basically says and I quote:
"The most effective preventive measures in the community include:
 performing hand hygiene frequently with an
alcohol-based hand rub if your hands are not visibly
dirty or with soap and water if hands are dirty;
 avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth;
 practicing respiratory hygiene by coughing or
sneezing into a bent elbow or tissue and then
immediately disposing of the tissue;
 wearing a medical mask if you have respiratory
symptoms and performing hand hygiene after
disposing of the mask;
 maintaining social distance (a minimum of 1 m)
from individuals with respiratory symptoms. "

Notice how these are basically the same precautions people should keep always, regardless of Corona Virus being there. That's why I said, what I do now is exactly what I'd do last year to avoid dying from a virus. Nothing has changed for me.

Also notice how the list of precautions doesn't include: 'horde face masks when not sick, stay indoors and cancel all travel plans'. Those actions actually hurt.

Read my original post. It never said Corona virus isn't an issue. My point was people's reaction is probably the main issue. And I tried to illustrate how illogical it is based on the risks people take when it comes to things that are currently proven to be deadly, not maybe deadly. The other day someone complained to me about the dangers of Corona Virus WHILE smoking a cigarette! (blew my mind, though I didn't say anything)

The overreaction is perfectly illustrated in the Atlantic article where they estimate 70% of the world population will have Corona Virus before the years end. At 7 billion, and with 3% death rate, it would mean 147,000,000 million dead by the year's end.

Given that you mentioned modeling on other diseases, you should be able to recognize this as wildly exaggerated fear mongering. Even if it was 10x as deadly as the flu we'd still be talking about 3 to 6 million dead world wide (high no doubt, but still less than tobacco deaths which stand at 7 million/year) And that's a pretty grim outcome since it would be 10x worse than any virus we know. This basic back of the envelop math makes me think the figure of 147,000,000 dead (the logical implication to the Atlantic's estimates) is pure quackery. There seems to be a feedback loop: the more people get scared, the more the media sells fear. The more the media sells fear, the more scared they become.

Again, I can't stress this enough, Corona Virus is real, it needs to be addressed, our leaders need to make it a priority. But also true is people need to stop fretting over things they can't control and the media needs to stop whipping them into a frenzy with fear mongering tactics. Overreactions can be just as bad as under reactions and humans have a long history of mass hysteria that only make things worse.