The great flu pandemic was reckoned to be a 10% mortality

If you are referring to Spanish 'flu - times were different, medical care was different. And attitudes were.

If attempts to confine the virus fail the aftermath will be untidy eg

I was told that in 1918 - returnees to NZ were anchored off-shore as a quarantine measure, only for Prime Minster Massey to take priority and ignore quarantine. NZ thought they had it sussed! Complacency & nobless oblige! He personally caused too many unnecessary deaths.

History has a habit of repeating itself, it has to, nobody is listening!

Just think, we haven't licked HIV yet, just learned to cope, badly.

But maybe, just maybe - scares like this will result in a reduction of air travel (for a while) and help with that other Sword of Damocles hanging over the human race.