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The Economic Impact of the Coronavirus

China is a much bigger part of the world economy than it was at the time of the 2003 SARS outbreak.

Economically, we have much more to worry about at this point than we do from the disease itself. I'm sure China is looking forward to declaring the 2019-nCov contained and the number of cases decreasing. The problem is the slowness of how they reacted to the outbreak and the fact that people were traveling for the Lunar New Year holiday. 

What might the economic impacts be, see The coronavirus is already hurting the world economy. Here's why it could get really scary.

You have to remember that many portions of the world are already teetering on recession. The USA economy has barreled along, fed by low interest rates and an influx of cash due to the Trump tax cuts. I'm a bit surprised that the downturn across the globe has not yet impacted us in any significant way. 

Here is a quote from the linked story, "The virus is not the driving factor behind those losses, however. Instead, it's the way consumers, businesses and governments respond to an outbreak that matters most."

While China would love to take the restrictions off travel and get their economy humming again, if they loosen the limits they have put on travel too soon, they could have an explosion of 2019-nCoV cases that really hammers them and the rest of the world that depends on the output of their factories to feed manufacturing and the consumer-driven economies.

Then, of course, the disease could mutate and transmission rates and deaths spike. Then all economic bets are off!

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.