Wuhan coronavirus 2019-nCoV

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/01/27/coronavirus-uncertainty-spreads-but-investors-shou.aspx

“… Consider the impact of seasonal influenza (what we call “the flu”) in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that an average of 28.6 million individuals have become ill from the flu each year since 2010. An average of 37,400 individuals died each year in that span, including an estimated 61,000 deaths last year. Did the media provide minute-by-minute updates for that? If they did, then you would know that one person died every four minutes. Did you consider investing in flu vaccines? 

While seasonal influenza has a mortality rate of only 0.1% across the entire population of the U.S., the CDC estimates that between 70% and 85% of all flu-related deaths occur in individuals 65 and older, primarily from respiratory-related complications. The flu has a mortality rate of over 1% in that population. 

That’s not unlike the current outbreak of coronavirus, which, like the flu, causes respiratory complications. Nearly every known death from 2019-nCoV occurred in older men. While the current overall mortality rate is nearly three times higher than that for the seasonal flu in older individuals in the U.S., healthcare quality and cultural norms (and the lack of a widely administered vaccine) likely contribute to the difference. 

For example, an estimated 52% of Chinese men smoke cigarettes, which is even more common in older men. Less than 12% of American men over the age of 65 have the same habit. Considering that smoking cigarettes nearly doubles your risk of becoming ill with the flu and other respiratory illnesses, that could be contributing to the current coronavirus outbreak’s virulence and mortality rate. “