Indeed. Deceptive on a number of levels. Firstly, reiterating that Trump called the virus a hoax (which he didn't). ...
Even the reliably Lib/Prog Snopes admits this.
Though many Progs cannot bring themselves to give up this MSM/Dem lie.
Influenza viruses and corona viruses are two different virus families. Because of a century of experience of dealing with influenza viruses, treatment is understood, and creating vaccines is a matter of tweaking an existing vaccine. For whatever reason, vaccines for SARS and MERS (both are corona viruses) were not created, and creating a vaccine for this coronavirus lack the head start we had for H1N1.
Another difference is that Chinese bureaucracy from the Wuhan level to the national level delayed reporting the outbreak for 2-4 weeks, delayed acknowledging that human-human transmission was known to be occurring for 3-4 weeks, and delayed shutting down transportation out of major Hubei Province cities until January 23rd. Those delays have been and continue to be deadly.
Some speculation that I think likely correct (+/- 20%):
* The epidemic in Iran is probably due to the delay in shutting down transportation out of Hubei Province;
* The epidemic in Italy is probably due to the delay in shutting down transportation out of Hubei Province
and other Schengen Zone (ain't the EU great, Part 1) countries not shutting down flights from China when Italy did;
* The epidemic in NYC is probably ~10X California due to travel to/from Italy and the rest of the Schengen Zone (ain't the EU great, Part 2).
As for FL and NOLA, spring breakers and Mardi Gras.