According a note Nature Briefing titled Infections in China pass 20,000
The number of people infected with the 2019-nCoV coronavirus in China reached 20,438 on 3 February, after more than 3,000 new cases were reported in a day. China’s National Health Commission also reported another 64 deaths, bringing the total to more than 420 in mainland China. Media are also reporting the death of a man in Hong Kong, the second fatality reported outside the mainland. (Nature | continuously updated)
What information is available regarding the rest of the countries where suspicious cases have been reported? The biggest problem is in China but what about those other cases, what about those other countries that are apparently being affected by the virus?
It is possible that international efforts to quash 2019-nCoV will halt the outbreak — but what if they don’t? Epidemiologists explore two of the most probable future scenarios: 2019-nCoV becomes a fifth “mundane” endemic human coronavirus that we don’t pay much attention to, or it becomes another seasonal pathogen, akin to seasonal influenza. (STAT | 8 min read)
A virus that is not given much attention? Is it perhaps useless then the alarm that has been generated internationally or is this just a way to calm people but without the assurance that everything will be fine? Is this virus a justification for spending a large amount of money to build a hospital only with the excuse of treating patients affected by a mundane virus? As mundane as influenza but in just a few days it has caused more than 420 deaths ...
[In early January, ophthalmologist Li Wenliang was targeted by police after he warned fellow doctors that a SARS-like outbreak was happening at Wuhan Central Hospital. Li went public with the experience, and the local authorities have since apologized. But Li, and his parents, ended up infected with the virus themselves. (BBC | 5 min read)
If, at the time, he had paid attention to Li's call, he and his family would probably not have been infected and perhaps the spread of the virus could have been limited in advance, thus avoiding the occurrence of so many cases and so many could have been avoided. deaths from a virus that some epidemiologists are pointing to as any virus although it has previously been related to SARS and MERS ...
Finally, if we are talking about a "mundane" virus, then why an editorial in the journal Nature has pointed out that "Researchers must ensure that their work on the outbreak is shared quickly and openly." For researchers, the message is simple : work hard to understand and combat this infectious disease; do that job at the highest level; and make the results quickly available to the world. " ?