Worried about the new coronavirus?
There are only a few ways this could go, and while most of the possibilities aren't great in the short run, it's better to have a good, hard look at those rather than simply hope the disease will be contained and go away. Here is an incredibly simplistic view of what might happen:
No probabilities have been assigned to any of these scenarios, but the likelihood of the first scenario (Containment) being realised is clearly decreasing. This obviously increases the likelihood of the rest of the scenarios, although the final scenario (Super-SARS) still seems remote.
The important takeaway from this, therefore, is that the short-term may well produce a situation in which a lot of people are getting sick, which will have implications at every level: global, national, sectoral and personal.
The question for you, therefore, is:
What do these various scenarios mean for you personally, in terms of how you plan for your health, your travel, your investments and any other aspect of your life that might be affected by a pandemic?