This story worries me. If the Canadians are having this much trouble keeping the virus in quarantine then it seems vanishingly unlikely that the Chinese have been able to put a lid on it. That implies to me that it will spread sooner or later. Later would be good since that buys time to find a vaccine or treatment, but I have trouble reading that and not concluding that it’s out of the bag in Toronto.

It’s hard to think this thru consequentially. It sure would put a damper on all kinds of activities where people gather: schools, churches, shopping districts, office buildings, public transportation, airplanes, conferences – that in turn would be quite a wet blanket over the entire economy. The thing seems to have a very look course, a 4-6 weeks for those that recover. That’s a lot of people out of the work force. A 3% death rate would be very bleak.

It is amazing though to watch the professional public health people do their job. Over the last few decades the concept of ‘public service’ has come under a lot of negitive PR from the anti-government, anti-regulator, privatizing crowd. Selfish twits.