Coronavirus deaths passes 130 as America considers a travel ban.

A nurse checks the temperature of a patient in Yueyang, China. Reuters. 

Deaths in the Coronavirus outbreak has passed 130 as America is considering a travel ban from China. Reuters. The Trump administration has not so far not put a flight ban into place but all options remain on the table. Airlines across the world are reducing flights to and from China due to fears of the virus. As of this writing 5,974 confirmed cases have been found. In Germany, the first cases of human to human transmission outside of China occurred as four people were infected by a colleague that had worked in China. How deadly the virus will be is still unknown due to unreliability of Chinese data that might not count all infected. 

My Comment:

Another update to the Coronavirus update. A lot has happened since my last post on the subject. The virus how now surpassed the number of infections in China that SARS was able to do back in 2002-2003 and it did it in a lot less time. 

I think a travel ban is more than justified at this point. There are cases in most of China and it's pretty clear that the virus is out of control. With almost 6000 confirmed cases and many more people being monitored for the disease I think the risk is strong enough that a travel ban is more than justified. 

And given the news from Germany it's clear that the virus can spread outside of China. Though that was always likely we now have confirmation that people returning from China could spread the disease to others if they aren't quarantined. If these people are allowed to come here they can and will infect other people. 

I don't think that screening people at airports is going to do much. If someone is symptomatic than it can catch people but it will allow people who are infected but not showing symptoms to pass through easily. And there has already been one alleged case of someone using fever reducers to sneak through the screening. 

Also a concern is that this virus can spread before symptoms even happen. There is some evidence that the virus can do this and if it is true than there is pretty much no point in screening people at airports. Anyone infected will have already likely passed their infection on to others. 

I don't really believe the numbers from China. I think there are probably a lot more cases out there and more than a few deaths. Some of that is expected as some people won't get severely ill and may play off the virus as a cold. But with the medical system falling apart in Wuhan I think that many cases are falling through the cracks. Plus China has never had a good relationship with the truth...

How dangerous the virus really is continues to be unclear. With only 132 deaths and a few recoveries, it's going to be unclear how deadly the virus really is. Some of the people in critical condition will die and many will recover but we won't know how many of each until some more time passes. The numbers I have seen has been around 3 to 5% which is a very high casualty rate but not anywhere near as deadly as even SARS was. 

What is clear is that the Coronavirus spreads pretty easily. It seems to be comparable to the flu but with a much higher death rate. If people don't take the normal precautions against this virus, like covering their mouths when they sneeze or cough, washing their hands or avoiding public gatherings than they could get infected about as easily as the flu or a cold. 

Even if the death rate remains low, the virus could easily cause a panic and economic disruption. Already the markets are not doing well in China due to investors fears. If the virus becomes widespread it could cause a recession that could do more damage than the virus itself.