[chris37]

There is no point in panic. That achieves nothing worthwhile.

I do, however, suspect that this is a Chinese bioweapon, and I have to admit that thought is scary.

[dangus]

Or even that it’s a test.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I do, however, suspect that this is a Chinese bioweapon, and I have to admit that thought is scary.

A lot of the panic has to do with the fact that the Chinese have been so secretive about it and will likely never come clean. If it is a bioweapon the designer likely got canned for it having such a low mortality rate.

[entropy12]

I do, however, suspect that this is a Chinese bioweapon

Good reasons to believe that it is a Chinese bioweapon which got accidentally released before planned. Wuhan is ground zero and covid-19 ran amuck until China admitted it's presence.

City of Wuhan is the only place in China where the research lab was working on this type of viruses.

It is a bio-weapon being perfected to be released in countries which are preventing China to again become the top economy in the world. A millennium or two ago it was the top economy. China badly wants to prove superiority.

China can not fight on tariffs with US because we import 4 times more from China than China imports from us. Tariff war hurts China 4 times harder. The bioweapon is ideal stealth weapon to attack and which would be difficult to trace. Millions in US would have been sick and dying not knowing what was the reason. Symptoms same as flu and cold, and no one knows about covid-19. For many months media would have said a bad flu season!

Since the culprit is now properly identified, and Trump admin is taking unprecedented actions, covid-19 will be on page 19 of NYT by beginning of summer.