Given the continued spread of the Wuhan coronavirus, we urgently reached out to John Barry, author of the award-winning New York Times best-seller The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History.

Two years ago, we interviewed John about the expected implications should a pandemic of similar scale break out in today world. Little did we realize at the time how quickly his insights would prove relevant.

John remains quite concerned at how the world’s readiness for a pandemic is woefully lacking, exacerbated by the hyper-connectedness of our modern society (i.e., the ease and speed with with people can travel).

And while good data is scarce in these early days, what we do know so far about the coronavirus does not encourage him. If the virus is indeed as contagious as suspected, he sees no hope of containing it before it becomes widespread.

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In addition to presenting a major public health risk, the coronavirus is already doing serious economic damage. China, the world’s second-largest economy, is essentially “closed for business” right now.

The disruption to global trade the coronavirus is likely to cause is going to be material, perhaps severe. And that will have serious negative consequences for the financial markets, which have been (and is still!) trading at the highest valuations in history.

The coronavirus has all the hallmarks of a true Black Swan event.

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While you wouldn’t know it by listening to the major media outlets, the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus continues to get worse. As does our understanding of its potential threat to the public health.

At this point, we have to be honest with ourselves: We are dealing with a true pandemic at this point

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Pretty much the entire country of China is in lockdown at this moment. Unbelievable.

Along with restricting travel within and across its borders, the Chinese government has begun heavily censoring the data its sharing with the world.

Chris calls into question the few statistics they’re currently reporting, suspecting the situation is devolving into something much worse than admitted to.

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In the midst of our furious coverage of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Chris is giving interviews to numerous interested media outlets.

Here’s an interview he just recorded hours ago on the TFMR Podcast, which gives a good breakdown of what we know so far about the unfolding situation (as of Saturday, Jan 25, 2020).

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Whether it’s 3.8 or 2.5 or 6.7, the R0 for 2019-ncov is sufficient to cause a pandemic.  It spreads easily.

My current opinion, which I reserve the right to change when better data comes in, is that the current R0 estimate of 2.5 is too low because of its reliance on officially-reported case data.

My advice to you is to begin practicing good hygiene right now.  Your best defense against this virus is to not catch it in the first place.

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What exactly is the ‘coronavirus’?

How worried do we need to be?

Given the poor communication so far by government health organizations and the media, the severity of the situation and the risk to public health, Chris Martenson filmed this important explanatory video hours ago.

In it, Chris explains the virus in layman’s terms, why the contagion we’re seeing is likely to spread substantially from here, and why the actions being taken so far by public health officials to contain the threat are woefully insufficient.

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The coronavirus is currently sweeping across China. So far, it has all the hallmarks of a potential true pandemic outbreak.

While it could still (and hopefully will) be contained and burn itself out, the chances of that are slipping by the hour.

If an actual pandemic breaks out, expect the following to happen quickly…

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