The Novel Coronavirus that is spreading around the world should be put in perspective. At this stage there over 85,000 cases, most of which are in China, where the outbreak started, and there have been almost 3,000 deaths. The virus is now slowly spreading across the globe, carried by travellers. People are reacting by cancelling travel, and there is talk of a financial downturn.

However, China, after initially hiding the problem, acted quickly to quarantine the centre of the outbreak and did a remarkable feat of setting up hospitals in days. Other countries also acted by restricting travel. The rate of infection has markedly fallen, and almost 40,000 of infected people have recovered, although there is worrying news from Israel that one patient was infected for a second time. In another remarkable feat, Israel has developed an oral vaccine that should be ready for market in several weeks.

The outbreak started about 2 months ago. Putting this into perspective, the Black Plague ravaged Europe for 4 years and killed 30-60% of the population. People need to respect quarantine measures and this outbreak should come to an end in a matter of weeks. In historical terms this is remarkable. [Picture: Pierart dou Tielt, c. 1353]