[bloopbloob]

Based on existing data, the disease is said to have a 2% death rate. This means that for every 50 people who catch the infection, one will statistically die.

To put this into context, around one in every 1,000 who develop flu die, giving it a death rate of 0.1%.

“This [2019-nCoV’s death rate] could be 2%, similar to Spanish flu,” said Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London."

The Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 is widely regarded as “the deadliest in history”, and is believed to have infected around 500 million people worldwide, killing between 20 and 50 million.


The mortality rate is not indicative of how serious this could be... It's the rapid spread that is the scary part. Also, Spanish Flu was from a time with less people, and much less travel. Ease of travel and high population concentrations are going to supercharge a similar event.