[DEPcom]

"How did this skip mainland China?"

Not sure if 12910 infected in mainland China count as a skip.

Hubei Province the epic center that was first to get the virus had 2682 deaths out of 65914 infected cases. The numbers could be higher, the rumor is China is lying about their data.

Does this death count of 4% (from china reported numbers) count as decimated?

Current flu death rate is less then .2% source

They shut down 11 cites before the Virus could get a foothold in the other parts of China. Much like President Trump did on travelers in Jan.

[LilFarmer]

Well said. People forget we are only 6-7 weeks from the official start of this thing, and around 3-4 weeks from cases outside China.

For a virus that has a 2-4 week duration (maybe longer with the recent relapse/reinfection data) we really still are early as to knowing what this will do. Way too early to write it off, IMO. It took Spanish Flu 2-3 years to know what it was like, with the worst coming in the Fall of the outbreak IIRC. The good news is that if we can hold it at bay, we can possibly develop an antiviral or vaccine. But I personally think that could be hindered by an ostrich mentality.