[bonesmccoy]

who are these "good people"?

This is beginning to sound less like a "global health alert" and more like a French WHO initiative meant to screw up the coalition.

[InShanghai]

I would say that there is indeed need for concern. It seems that the virus is very contagious: every health employee in contact with the reported first case in Hong Kong became ill with the same virus. Additionally, the ratio of deaths to infections put the mortality rate for anyone who contracts the virus at 3.7%

In a city with 1,000,000 (one million) people, 37,000 people would die from the virus. The 37,000 people would require medical treatment, including mechanical ventalation. I could not imagine what would happen if this hit a city with 22-23 million people.

It seems to me that the WHO, CDC, and any other group willing to work on the problem to help prevent a health catastrophe should do so immediately.