When this is all sorted out and we have the spare test kits and a couple years to monitor COVID-19, we're going to find that infected virtually everyone and it has a mortality rate close to the common flu of about 0.1%.
In addition, and we'll find this out a lot sooner than later, we will find that all this economy killing stuff: the self-quarantining, social-distancing, school closings, restaurant closings, daycare closings.... we're going to find that it didn't do anything to "flatten the curve" in any substantial manner.
So we are currently killing our economy and reducing our ability to respond to the impending needs for a snake-oil cure that apparently nearly every world leader has purchased.
Your point about the flu is interesting. I wonder what the numbers would look like if you tracked a specific strain of the flu through the flu season. Probably could cause a panic just reporting those numbers like they are with the Chinese virus
Germany does just that. A doctor there reports that coronavirus is just one of hundreds of new viruses that appear each year, and only infects about 10% of the people, then it goes away. This one doesn't seem to be any different than the previous ones, and he doesn't understand the alarm. His lab got a sample early on from China, and they had already identified it in Germany, so it was already running through the world back in January.
I think when temperatures start rising it's going to disappear. A warm few days in NYC and it will all but disappear.