One thing about Israel, is that it takes all measures to protect its citizens, whatever the threat.

Me too , I've got two young boys now and my concern is for them. Some people on this thread don't seem to realise just how unprecedented this is going to be and are still going on about that its no worse than the flu. 

Many of us have elderly parents and some of us have both elderly parents and young kids, I don't think this is what shapes our attitude.

I think Maunder has neither elderly parents nor young kids, yet he has been on the speculation & hysteria bus right from its first stop.  

The response does seem to be more severe than the virus based on current evidence. The benefit  of hindsightl will be interesting.

That seems to imply that flu is no more than a minor ailment.

Yes, I begin to think the same. It also becomes a positive feedback, the more severe the response, the greater the media coverage and the anxiety that creates to many people, who then ask for an even stronger response.

New reports using words such as "panic" don't help either.

I didn't say that I know its a very serious disease.  And this new virus is likely to be worse. And while we don't know how bad this disease is,  we are going to see some extraordinary efforts to avoid it spreading.  Like a country the size of Japan closing all of its schools for a month.

On Jan 30th WHO declared a public health emergency and also advised the following: "There is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with intl. travel & trade"

I said at the time that I didn't think it made sense and I still don't. A more precautionary approach (given we only had a half understanding of the virus) would have made more sense in my mind.

More recently they've been criticized about reacting slowly (which I think they accepted) to the Ebola outbreaks.

Reading a bit more about the WHO, it seems that they will declare it a global pandemic only if containment fails and the virus gets out of control with major outbreaks globally. This is because they think that national governments already take it very seriously and a declaration of pandemic wouldn't bring any material improvements in the efforts against it, but it might panic people unnecessarily and could even harm global cooperation.

Anyone read Roald Dahl's "the twits". Put me off beards for life

Very few children are getting this virus and no 0-9 year olds have died from it. I have 2 daughters, one of which has had respiratory issues in the past requiring multiple hospital stays, however, I refuse to worry unnecessarily about this virus. 

One of mine would; the elder one would freak - she has GCSE's in May/June.

It would be an insane level of over-reaction to close all schools. 

Would be hilarious if this prevented Liverpool from winning the league again

Most international and national experts seem to agree with the WHO stance? They didn't seem to say 'carry on as usual', they said 'don't take excessive/unnecessary measures'. 

Take Italy for example, they had amongst the most strict restrictions for travel with affected countries (compared to other European countries) and yet they got it. (they still haven't found their patient zero btw). 

Did she vote for Brexit and Boris?

I think she is a Corbynista Brexiter...

Well let's hope it is an over reaction.  But I'm sure they don't want any chance of their health service being completely overwhelmed and the utter chaos that brings like we saw in Wuhan.

Boris will have to choose between the economy or peoples lives. If the virus does become a full blown epidemic, at least 100,000 will die according to some estimates, most of them elderly with pre existing conditions.

But he cannot afford a massive economic shock so he wont do a China or even Italy. He will take the deaths

You hang around with such people?

I bet she loves Richard Burgon

I’m sure they must have to take account of current data which shows the number of new deaths dropping daily and also that recovered cases exceed new cases.

How many of those 'estimated 100,000' people would have died anyway in the next 12 months? 

The majority of cases in the UK (and other developed countries) are reported to bring either no or only mild symptoms. Only a tiny minority require hospital treatment, and out of those a minority die. 

My parents are either side of 80 and if they got it, there could be ramifications. But other than that, I'm not worried in the least about the disease; more worried about the impacts of over-reactions and panic.

By implication there was no push to restrict travel.

Statement from Tedros today (1 month later), note the change in tone.....

"My message to each of these countries is: this is your window of opportunity.

If you act aggressively now, you can contain this coronavirus.

You can prevent people getting sick.

You can save lives".

I'm not sure the WHO themselves were aligned in their views/approach. https://www.ft.com/content/8ede7e92-4749-11ea-aeb3-955839e06441 and the organisation seems like a bit of a political animal at the top.

A Corbynista Brexiter is at least one evolutionary step up from a 'pleb' voting for Brexit and Bozo/Rasputin.

The Corbynista Brexiter only voted against their own interests once.

I agree with you about deaths, but all the evidence thus far points to around 20% requiring hospitalisation.

Of course, that is 20% of confirmed cases, so if many go undetected that would change the stats - but would still be a huge number, crippling health services.