[tortoise]

Could the ChiComs possibly be betting the farm on sheer population sizes here? Try to imagine our economy with a 40-70% death rate.

The US is simply too genetically diverse, buttressed by a strong northern European genetic component. Anything that is strong enough to hit a 40% death rate in the US will also be strong enough to sweep through China.

Also, China is a filthy and crowded third-world country with very marginal sanitation and an economy that is FAR more dependent on human labor and interaction than the US is. The transmission paths will be much denser and quicker in China than in the US, and they would have to squash a much bigger part of their economy to have a prayer of containing it.

[processing please hold]

I agree wholeheartedly.

[datura]

I guess I should ask also if this doesn't sound like something that simply got out of the lab by accident. Knowing the ChiCom level of quality control (no matter what you're talking about), Class 3 or above biofacilities in China would no doubt scare the Hell out of an American scientist.

So were a lab worker to take the disease home, or even a test animal were to escape, eventually the situation could look just like it does now.

Am I right?