Respectfully both your views on this virus mirror the Blase attitude of our government which is proving to be extremely frustrating for the medical community in Australia.
Kacy, firstly whilst your observations about Singapore are true, this has nothing to do with the nature of the virus, rather Singapore's response. Having had experience with SARS alas 2002-03, Singapore was hit early with COVID as its a major trading partner of China. Within 24 hours of China making the announcement, nucleic acid testing kits were dispatched to every port of entry into the country, every single person entering a corporate building or business had to register their details, they launched of the of most comprehensive diagnose and preventative measures ever in the history of the country THIS is the reason they are ok.
For Iran and Italy, it needs to be noted that kissing is a customary form of greeting for men and women. This can be a possible explanation for the rapid rise and huge numbers. Iran has a very young population almost 75% under 30, so this makes your Italian argument about age void as you cant apply one logic to one country and a different logic to another,
Now on to the Virus itself, to your argument that death rates are low, (although I would argue a global mortality rate of 3% is still high, or a mortality rate of almost 10% in the 8th largest economy in the world Italy is still significant), the issue is until there is a vaccine or a therapeutic treatment, this needs to be contained. We know the virus causes mild symptoms in most who get it and some then next negative, what do we know about its effect on the human body after recovery? what if people drop dead 3 months after recovering? as there has been 1 case in China.
With regards to mass spread, it may be a common cold to you and me, but what about all the cancer patients going through Chemo, all the diabetics, people with immune disorders? Just because in a small sample size of the population the mortality rate is low you can't just say let's all come to terms with the fact that we all get it and get it over and done with, this is extremely irresponsible at best. There is a reason why some countries have enacted emergency powers of arrest for people who are positive and don't follow the guidelines (including NSW).
Anyway, we got way off track from the markets. Hope everyone stays safe.
(20min delay)