A 15% mortality rate is huge, but considering that this is a newly identified disease, the actual mortaility rate might be much less. Inventing some numbers, le

A 15% mortality rate is huge, but considering that this is a newly identified disease, the actual mortaility rate might be much less. Inventing some numbers, let's say that 3000 people were already infected when the initial 41 patients were identified -- those 41 being the sickest. The other 2959 people either didn't have symptoms or were assumed to have a cold or flu, and they all recovered. Had there been a reliable way to identify the hypothetical 3000 infected people, the mortaility rate would be only 0.2% if 6 had died.