I don't know if I will be of any help - cuz nobody likes bad news.
The panic about the virus is not so much about numbers of people dead - now 18 at 21:27 2020-01-23 (GMT). The panic is about economic impact. Like how?
1 - Impact on travel of all sorts
2 - Airline industry to be specific.
3 - Transportation of people and goods, other than by air.
4. Hotels, casinos - anywhere large numbers of people gather - and there are backlashes all around into industries that serve other industries. (So difficult to give a full list here).
Numbers of people infected and those who have died, reported in mainstream media - normally influenced by governments - will be conservative and massaged in advance.
The virus is transmitted by the air. Anybody infected breathing out will transmit droplets of breath - with virus in them - for several feet around them. Laser photography shows best how human breath transmits droplets. Natural air currents will cause those droplets to travel further - so this is now the virus gets circulated around.
But this virus has had from about mid-December 2019 to now to be spread all over the world (because little was known back then). This means that nature is well ahead of any protective measures implemented in last few days.
There is currently no vaccine to protect people and no medicine that can kill the virus dead in an infected person. The problem is that by the time an infected person is discovered, they will have infected several other people (unknowingly).
Health workers caring for infected people will need to wear special equipment. But some health workers will be unaware who exactly is infected. The initial symptoms don't stand out very well from other virus infections. So this is where there is high risk. If loads of doctors and nurses etc in hospitals all around the world contract this virus, there will be real trouble. Just to be clear, I'm not saying that everybody who is infected will die.
So even if small percentages of people die from this virus infection, the big impact will likely be on economies.
So twitchy have been markets that this evening, the markets rocked north on word that the WHO will not announce a global crisis about the virus. Could you imagine if they did make such an announcement, what would happen next in the markets?
I'm not a virus expert - this does not mean I'm forbidden from applying basic science.