AFAICT, in lay terms, the most accurate description of this virus would be “a bad flu strain”. Which might be a real concern in some countries, but isn’t something the average American or European would or should panic about unduly.
So, if the WHO director says travel bans don’t help, I’m inclined to assume he knows more than I do. And when the Chinese delegate says it’s the countries with least to fear who are generating the most panic, that rings true to me on the face of it. The English-language news sources I see are all but breaking out the popcorn, precisely because their audience has no real stake in the story.
The Chinese government is untrustworthy. But if they say panic is unhelpful, well, it is unhelpful. It doesn’t mean I should panic twice as hard because China said it.
