Quote Originally Posted by Shaka_Khan View Post
Also, that Communist Party exacerbated the problem by hiding the outbreak and arresting the doctors who tried to alert the public back in December. Even today, the numbers are underreported partly because there aren't enough medical supplies to test all of the patients. And that government is using scapegoats to get the blame away from itself.

The way I look at it, this has already reached the epidemic level and will eventually spread around the world like the common flu unless drastic measures are taken. These drastic measures include banning travel between more infected countries, which is something that WHO doesn't recommend (yet?). Some of the countries were also late in containing the spread, and I fear that we might see those regions become epidemic regions in the near future.

This shows how vulnerable the world is to an epidemic. I'm afraid of what might happen if an epidemic of a more dangerous virus begins.
It would be bad, but likely less bad than the flu outbreak at the end of WW1. Our ability to support patients and mitigate symptoms allows us to minimize death-rates from any naturally occurring virus. Not that it still wouldn't suck, just saying that a Black Death levels of casualties are unlikely outside of Central Africa or Indonesia.

Particularly deadly viruses tend to burn out faster as the hosts' deaths minimize the ability of the infection to spread. Viruses that have mutated to insure massive spread (like Rhinoviruses) tend to be less virulent.

It would take a multi-layer engineered virus to have the kind of earth-changing effect you fear.