I've lightly playing with comparing the seasonal flu with the Chinese virus. Here's some disorganized bullets:
Schools are having to close, Oh mygod!!! Well, actually, all over the US, we regularly close schools during the seasonal flu, but except for local news, you seldom hear about it. Before the CV came to the public's eye, Virginia had already been closing schools in response to this year's flu season. Apparently it's been a harsher one then normal.
Flu deaths vs Chinese Virus. While at first, if you made the mistake of listening to the WHO, CV appeared to be a super killer, but if you compare flu rates with CV, they're about the same. The difference is in the fact we're accustom to the flu deaths and the CV is new (Novel) and been made scary by the media. Hell, some years it's estimated by the CDC, that in the US, as many as 61,000 people died from the flu and it doesn't even get notice. We're at over 18,000 this year, but the season isn't over yet and we won't know the CDC numbers for a year. 100 deaths CV and we're in a state of panic. Kind of a disproportionate response.
Italy. According to an article in the International journal of Infectious Diseases, November 2019. 24,981 deaths were attributable to influenza during the season 2016/17. A quote from the summary page “The observed excess of deaths is not completely unexpected, given the high number of fragile very old subjects living in Italy.” Yes, old sick people are particularly susceptible to the Chinese Virus, as they are to the flu.
The only real difference I see between the flu and Chinese Virus, is the CV appears to be more contagious. How much, don't know and no one will know until the dust is settled or civilization has collapsed. Which reminds me, I need more ammo, because about the only thing still open is the gun range and I might as well get in some practice for the coming apocalyptic