Small Pox Major 95%
AIDS 80%
Plague 50%
MERS 35%
Dengue Fever 26%
Hanta virus 21%
Typhoid 20%
Diphtheria 10%
Whooping Cough 3.7% in infants
Measles 3%
Mumps 1%
Hepatitis 0.3%
Corona virus 0.25% ....estimate based on latest numbers
Flu 0. 1%.
........
Those are some infectious diseases and their death rates in the absence of a vaccine or a proven treatment, which is where we are with Wuhan right now. We have lived and worked through serious diseases. AIDS for example whose transmission mechanism was subject to many of the kinds of rumors we hear about Wuhan these days.
Each disease presents differently....Wuhan is highly infectious, more so than many of the diseases. But it’s death rate seems to fall somewhere between hepatitis and the flu. And the vast majority have very mild symptoms....unlike Hepatitis which makes everybody really sick.
Also the disease is concentrated in a small, identifiable segment. That should make it easier to target......well understood transmission mechanism, only lethal in a small segment, avoidable in that segment by quarantining, weakening seasonally with heat and humidity.
There are many aspects to attack there, with an intelligent strategy differentiated by demographics and geography. But what we have had so far is yesterday’s playbook.