How serious is the Coronavirus? FIRST CASE REPORTED IN US

Is anyone concerned? I am sitting in Malaysia, and the lanterns are glowing in readiness for the Chinese New Year. I have been following the Coronavirus story for over a week now. What little coverage the mainstream media have given this potential global disaster is minimal.

On Friday (17th January), the first human to human transference of the Coronavirus was reported in Wuhan China. The Reuters news network released this story on Sunday (19th January), The mainstream media caught up on Tuesday.

It is hardly surprising news concerning the Coronavirus outbreak has been so sketchy, especially when we consider the accuracy of news coming from China.

On Tuesday (20th January), Twitter started to buzz with #coronavirus. Several videos made their way on to the network, showing some disturbing scenes. Men wearing plastic suits and masks checking the temperature of every passenger onboard a flight leaving Wuhan.

Other footage posted to Twitter showed hospital workers wearing Hazmat suits. This footage was followed by the news that 13 hospital workers have contracted the disease after exposure to patients.

A report posted by zerohedge.com approaches this potential pandemic from a financial perspective. With news that the Asian markets began sliding into the red on Monday (19th January). As trading closed on Tuesday, over 80% of Asian stocks were firmly in the red.

The markets never lie, and we should always follow the money. The message from the trading floors is that another repeat of the 2003 SARS outbreak would be "bad for business", and the feeling in the financial world is that this current Coronavirus outbreak could get very serious.

As we enter the harvest festival or Chinese new year as we call it in the west. An estimated 3 billion journeys will be made by Chinas 1.4 billion citizens. Some Asian countries and the US have begun screening passengers from the affected Wuhan region. However, this feels like a sticking plaster on a shark bite, when you consider just how a virus like this can spread.

The latest projections from Hong Kong University (a region also affected) paints a much darker story than the mainstream media or China would like us to know. Their models show a possible pandemic, with most of Asia falling into the red contaminated zone.

As I am writing this article the first case of the Coronavirus has been reported in the United States (Seattle). This is in addition to cases already reported in South Korea, Japan, and Thailand, where one person has died from the virus.

If this is by design or accident, the timing of this outbreak could not be worse. I can not think of any region in Asia that will not experience an influx of Chinese tourists over the next few weeks. Beyond Asia, most countries in the world will receive Chinese visitors in the coming days if the Coronavirus escalates and becomes a pandemic. We will all need to worry.

Mr Tan in Asia