Just a few random thoughts on the current epidemic:
A senior official of an Indian drug manufacturer (many generic and brand name drugs are manufactured in India and shipped to many countries) recently commented that since China produces significant quantities of raw materials for drug manufacture, the current outbreak in China will impact the supply chain of drug product to market in the near future.
Attempts to make a semi-reliable estimate on the fatality rate of this epidemic at this juncture is futile. I think the numbers gave out by CDC on the yearly impact of flu (number of death related to the infections caused by the flu virus) is a good reference point. Based on all the numbers currently available (relaible or not), the fatality rate of this virus appears to be lower than that of SARS and MERS, and significantly less than that of Ebola. Until the dust settled, we will not have any reliable information.
The Diamond Princess case is a real fiasco. Japan does not know how to handle the situation. Therefore, the Japanese official just keep the passengers and staffs on the ship. All the people locked down on the ship are likely suffering from cross-infection. The environment on the ship is not appropriate for quarantine. The ship is now a big incubator for the virus and humans are the medium. I suspected some of the people got infected after the locked down. And I believe if the lock down continues, more and more people will be infected. A real sad case of mis-handling.
New viruses popped up every year (viruses "evolve" by mutation). Once in a while, one of these new ones will hurt us. Some people will die (just like in a natural disaster such as earth quake, tornado, Tsunami, hurricane etc.). This will not be the last epidemic we see. There will be more to come, as have seen from history. We just have to learn how to deal with it.