[arthurus]

The Chinese thought it was way worse than other flu type viruses. Their reaction to the escape, if escape it was, suggested that they thought it was much worse than it is, thought it was as bad as they had designed it to be. I believe the rest of the world reacted to the Chinese reaction, not to the actual progress of the bug.NSA would have had indications that this was a leaked(or planted) weapon and our own reaction was appropriate to that.

[MortMan]

IS or IS NOT will be settled by data, not impressions.

The US populace should not be sacrificed on the alter of liberal or conservative opinion. Cold, hard facts are required.

Do you have any?

[fr_freak]

The Chinese thought it was way worse than other flu type viruses. Their reaction to the escape, if escape it was, suggested that they thought it was much worse than it is, thought it was as bad as they had designed it to be.

I lean toward this explanation too. The Chinese designed it with some expectations, but had no idea how it would really behave in the wild. When it got loose, they had no choice but to prepare for the worst case scenario.