[Zhang Fei]

[I’m not panicking, the Chinese government is.]

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They’re not panicking. The hospitalization rate (a subset of which is critical care) of US flu patients in 2018 was 1.4%. The critical care rate of Chinese coronavirus patients is 25%. That’s potentially 30x as high as the US number. The death rate of US flu patients is 0.1%. The death rate of Chinese coronavirus patients is 3%.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/index.html

[Magic Fingers]

I’m not comparing the Chinese reaction to this event to the critical care rates of the flu in the U.S. I’m comparing it to their (lack of) actions in past major outbreaks in China (e.g., SARS).