It is crazy. I try not to be a conspiracy theorist, but this all seems intentional. It is one thing to avoid panic, but quite another thing to seemingly be intentionally obtuse about it.
Any contagion in a heavily populated area CAN spread, even if it isn’t as contagious as the flu or measles.
And if we let it get a foothold and reach a point where it can impact our ability to care for patients who get infected and processes are delayed or compromised, it will spread quite rapidly at that point.