[The Pack Knight]

I generally agree. While, from what I've seen and heard, there's no cause for real alarm or panic just yet, as so far the effects have been relatively mild. We don't know enough, though, to disregard it as "nothing", and it certainly holds the potential to become a more serious problem.

I certainly don't think this has been manufactured or exaggerated by the Obama Administration, though I'm certain it will be used as political football by both liberals (to promote government medicine) and conservatives (to promote closing the borders). It's entirely unnecessary for the President to "manufacture" a crisis out of this; the media will do that for him, and not for any political reason. With respect to an earlier poster on this thread, it's ludicrous to suggest that the media are fudging the numbers in order to downplay the seriousness of this outbreak; they have every incentive to exaggerate the crisis in the minds of the public in order to boost ratings and sell more newspapers.

So absolutely, don't panic, but don't disregard this as meaningless, either. Go about your life, but take precautions. Besides, many of the most effective precautions are things you should be doing anyway, like washing your hands! I strongly suspect that the disparity in the number of deaths and infections between the United States and Mexico has much more to do with hygiene than medical care.

[Quix]

I’m not convinced about the original origins . . .

Thought initially that the 3 components were highly unlikely to come together naturally.

That’s still my bias. I’m just not AS convinced of that as I initially was.