Just a reminder of how SARS spread in 2003 from around 150 infected on March 17th to about 8,000 on August 7th, with about 800 deaths.
By comparison, as of today, officially about 900 have been infected by the Wuhan virus and 26 have died; however, a UK research paper estimates that only about 5% of the infections are public and that the number of infections will exceed 250,000 within the next two weeks in Wuhan city alone. The paper also suggests the travel restrictions won't have any effect in halting transmissions across China.
Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV: early estimation of epidemiological parameters and epidemic predictions - Lancaster University - Jan. 24In Hubei province, most major cities with about 35 million residents are now under lockdown.
Instead of providing basic sanitary assistance to the people affected, the Chinese authorities spent the first few days locking up citizens who reported about the virus and threatening journalists.
China spent the crucial first days of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak arresting people who posted about it online and threatening journalistsThere is video footage from Wuhan of chaotic conditions in hospitals, with corpses (or sleeping patients?) lying in the corridors among hundreds a patients waiting to be treated in crowded conditions. Staff lack basic sanitary equipment.
There is also footage of rural roads and even dirt tracks being dug up to stop circulation, military personal in protective closing and tanks moving into the city. It's hard to tell how much of that is authentic.
It appears that many infected patients don't ever have fever, which will make detecting very difficulty.
On the bright side, the Chinese won't loose their sense for business opportunities whenever they present themselves. With the scarcity of sanitary equipment and protective masks, there seems be a market for used second hand masks.
Not that the masks do much good since you'll also need goggles to protect your eyes.
If you want a taste of the scary or hilarious or both, have a look at Harry Chen PdD twitter feed:
https://mobile.twitter.com/IsChinarNo, the world is not ready for China yet, definitely not.