Some perspectives on COVID-19
China is now reporting their first case in mid-November, so it likely traveled beyond their borders far earlier than January. It's probably much more widespread than believed already, and likely many more people have had it already than anyone will ever be aware of.
While we assume it started in China, it's only because their very controlled system spotted it as novel first, but there's been no confirmation of it there in the animal populations they've been able to study, yet. It could've started elsewhere and spread there for them to spot.
Remember, most people get mild cases of it and it is transmitted easily, even without visible symptoms. Indeed, you may have already had it and not known it, thinking it was something else.
The good news in all that - it's likely statistically less deadly than originally believed and many more people are probably already immune to it than we are know of.
People rightly compare it to the 1918 pandemic, but we have many tools available to us that were not available in 1918, including the ability to talk about it and plan over the internet, to spread information, and get food and supplies delivered to our doors. We also have the ability to create a vaccine, and trials on it are starting now, even if it will take many months to get it deployed. It is very contagious and is very much more dangerous than a typical flu, especially for those at risk. But, this is not the plague, or polio, nor measles or smallpox, all of which decimated large populations around the world.
We all need to stay in to prevent overwhelming the medical system, but in the end, the vast majority of us will be just fine. So stay home, enjoy a calmer life as our ancestors once did, without racing off to work. Read a book, watch some movies, spend quality time with your families. Consider it a world-wide spring cleaning. An opportunity to reflect on what our world has come to, and perhaps even a opportunity to make a new start to working together to solve the world's many issues.
And save some toilet paper for the rest of us!
