If this illness kills as many people as the Spanish Flu (percentage-wise) that would be about 190,000,000 dead . Considering that China levelled off at a little over 3,000 deaths, from the perspective of the current date, there is no way the Corona flu will be anywhere near comparable. Many populous countries are already getting it under control. The only huge populated areas that could bring a total death toll up to 190,000,000 are India, Africa, and perhaps Mexico or Latin America.
I don't think it's going to be as bad as the Spanish Flu either, because we're dong the things that are being poo pooed here and in other places. Absent the sort of extraordinary measures that China, and now Italy, and the US and the rest of Europe are taking, this could well be as bad as the 1918 pandemic.
But, we know more now than we did then. And we have the global information systems to get the word out that people need to put distance between themselves and their fellow man and that all unnecessary travel needs to be shut down. You don't take those measures and this could well be 1918 Flu Part II.
Understanding infectious disease and controlling it was in it's infancy in 1918. And they didn't have the means to essentially shut countries down in short order. This should go much better this time if people will take reasonable precautions.
It is a real shame though that we don't have generic anti-viral therapies like Draco up and running. Shame on us.
This is going to be really interesting. In the US we're going to see how long it really take the FDA to approve something new when they have to. I think the last I heard was that a new vaccine takes a decade to get approved here. And, they were still growing vaccine in chicken eggs here until recently when the FDA finally approve recombinate techniques for vaccine production after it being approved in Europe for a decade or so.