Readers: No need to panic amid virus outbreak

markwu (Malaysia)

The Wuhan authorities should not be blamed. After all, the infections were symptomatic of the common cold but it had an incubation period of 2 - 12 days before manifesting itself so people who were infected remained unaware they were carrying the virus and had gone about their plans for their festival travel. The situation was further aggravated by the fact no one can expect to have the right testing equipment on hand in anticipation of any new disease. Maybe one day someone will invent a cheap and fast universal virus detector but until then, identifying the virus, deciding what to do next, marshaling the resources to attack the spread, and doing it full-scale remain the best of efforts. And that's exactly what the authorities have done.