The fatality rate, and the rate at which people need intensive care, is 20-40 times that of the flu. If the fatality rate is 3%, and it affects half the US, tha

The fatality rate, and the rate at which people need intensive care, is 20-40 times that of the flu. If the fatality rate is 3%, and it affects half the US, that's 5 million dead from the disease alone. If it affects half the world, that's 100 million dead. Some estimates peg it as high as 4.8%. In addition to all of the people it's going to kill, it will also decimate the world's intensive care resources. Many people who would otherwise die will live because they got a bed in intensive care. Conditions which complete for these ICU beds will see their fatality rate sky rocket. It is incontrovertibly in the "serious" bucket.