The WHO declared its second highest level of warning for the corona virus epidemic, just below the level of pandemic. So far the CoVID-19 appears to be more deadly than influenza, but less deadly that the Asian swine flu (H1N1) that killed more than twelve thousand in the United States alone (equivalent to 1 in 5 infections). Health officials still hope to contain the virus' spread which is aided by international travel to zones of high infection [map] The disease is already having an economic effect. The OECD has cut its forecast for 2020 global economic output. Worst case scenarios put Europe into recession and the US into zero growth. Normally pro-private market pundits are calling on world governments to take aggressive action to contain the disease. It will take a lot more intelligent action than just pious prayers to do that.*
Meanwhile, the state of Washington reported four more deaths at the Kirkland nursing home facility bringing the US death total to six. King County (Seattle) has declared a state of emergency. Globally, 85,000 people have been infected as of Saturday, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University, and more than 2,900 infected people have died (3.4%).
*In fact, VP Pence botched a public health emergency when he was the governor of Indiana. Faced with an HIV outbreak in a rural Indiana county, he refused at first to make hygienic needles freely available to control infection by intravenous means. Pence has a record as a science denier. In 2000 he wrote an op-ed saying smoking does not kill. Yet he was named by the Antichrist in Office to lead the government's response to the corona virus epidemic. Reactionary talking head are accusing the Democrats of 'weaponizing' news about the epidemic's spread in an effort to bring down Der Leader. There is a chaotic effort to control information by the regime. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, denied that he'd been muzzled. Dr. Fauci was scheduled to appear on the five Sunday morning talk shows and canceled them all. Mike Pence showed up instead.