The Wuhan coronavirus has been a perpetual reoccurrence in mainstream media headlines since its emergence in December 2019 culminating in the lockdown of Wuhan and subsequent lockdowns of 14 other cities in the Hubei province of China.
Cases of the coronavirus have since been confirmed in 26 countries, including eight patients in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins CSSE. Numbers and rumors about the virus have been floating around on social media sites such as Facebook, Reddit and Twitter.
Sensationalist headlines designed to draw in views rather than provide meaningful information have also been circulating and stirring up general panic.
While statistics are easy to digest and popular to view with their impressive numbers of infections and deaths, something that most major media outlets fail to address is what sort of risk the coronavirus truly poses to the average person outside of China.
The short answer; next to no immediate danger.
As of the time of this writing, the vast majority of cases of coronavirus outside of China that have been observed have been diagnosed in patients who had recently traveled from the Chinese mainland, especially those who fled Wuhan before the city went into lockdown, and there have been only four cases of human-to-human transmission outside of China, compared to the tens of thousands of domestic Chinese infections of the virus, according to the World Health Organization.
Despite over 99 percent of coronavirus cases being localized within China, the WHO has declared a global health emergency over the emergence of the coronavirus, though the virus has not yet reached pandemic status, and judging by the international response and awareness to the virus, it is possible that it may never be so.
Primary concerns over the coronavirus among health organizations are little to do with whether this will become a new population-devastating plague, but if the virus will become endemic; a seasonal disease that sweep certain regions on an annual basis, much like influenza.
The Center for Disease Control recommends to keep up with news on the situation, but there is no alarm for panic in the United States.
“The virus is not currently spreading in the community in the United States,” reads the CDC website for the 2019 coronavirus.
The CDC recommends following standard everyday procedures to prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses that may pose a bigger threat to you than the coronavirus, such as H1N1.
These include washing your hands often, covering your cough, disinfecting surfaces you touch frequently and staying home when you are sick.
