The rapid spread of the coronavirus emanating from Wuhan in China has brought back memories of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS outbreak of 2003.
The SARS epidemic claimed 774 lives, with over 280 of the deaths in Hong Kong.
While the Wuhan virus has spread more quickly and widely than SARS did, it is so far, much less deadly. It’s rapid spread is likely because this novel coronavirus strain is simply more contagious and also probably because China is much more globally interconnected today than it was in 2003.
