Coronavirus is not something anyone would want to be exposed to but, a little perspective please.  This “dread killer” was brought to us by the lovely folks in Wuhan, China.  How it actually got into the human population is still a matter for speculation with a lot of weight being given to to thought that it originated in the Chinese government’s “skunk works” (read that Area 51) in Wuhan and was brought out of the lab by some low level employee who sold infected animals to a local meat market.  That it could’ve been a government experimental project is plausible.  To think that in a society as controlled, and possessed of such drastic punishments, that a low level, or any other level, employee would risk being caught smuggling and selling government secrets is not very likely.  If indeed such a path was the truth behind how the virus entered the human population, it had to be at the behest of the government, perhaps beta testing a new population control scheme.

Without regard to the how, the virus is among us and is spreading worldwide.  The question is, how likely is it that you or I will catch it?

The other feared virus in the USA is the flu and comparing the victim stats between the two is instructive.  So far this year, according to the CDC, between 184,000 to 221,000 have been hospitalized with the flu.  In that same period 11,600 to 19,100 people have died from the flu virus.  In a typical year flu kills between 12,000 and 56,000 individuals.  The coronavirus stats are a bit smaller with The New York Times reporting 29 confirmed cases and one death.

The statistics for coronavirus will probably rise but, given the current rate of increase, it is not likely to ever reach anywhere near the number that the flu visits on us each and every year.

The take away?  Wash your hands and go on with your life.  When the coronavirus vaccine is produced, get inoculated.  But in the meantime the odds are overwhelmingly in your favor for not getting this present from China.