Readers: No need to panic amid virus outbreak

Dostoevskydr (Expat in China)

Is the media overhyping the threat?

The coronavirus is novel and, for susceptible people, can be fatal. This combination is enough to drive the ever-hungry 24-hour news media and increasingly political responses. There is no doubt that public health concerns of a lethal contagion are one of the very few good reasons to allow -- even demand -- governments to restrict movement. But a disease with a fatality rate as low as the coronavirus does not really fit that description.