We closed just about every school in the country today as well as Kindergartens and whatnot. So I wouldn't say germany is inactive, although you could argue that the current measures aren't enough.

UPDATE: NYS has 96 confirmed new cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 421.

Westchester: 158
NYC: 154
Nassau: 51
Suffolk: 28
Rockland: 9
Ulster: 5
Dutchess: 3
Orange: 3
Saratoga: 3
Albany: 2
Broome: 1
Delaware: 1
Herkimer: 1
Monroe: 1
Schenectady: 1

— Archive: Governor Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) March 13, 2020

It's the nature of exponential growth. That is scary. So a few cases now can mean hundreds in a week and thousands in two weeks. The earlier you stop the spreading, the better. Also, even if you bring down the rate of new infections, this is highly helpful to reduce the impact of exponential growth. This video explains that a bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg

Also, apparently shuttoing down Wuhan only a day earlier might have reduced the number of infected by 40%, as this article explains:

https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca

And the reason experts freak, is that the reproduction rate is much higher than normal flu, which means it can lead to situations where the health system is overloaded with sick people:

https://elemental.medium.com/why-we-should-care-commonly-asked-questions-and-answers-about-covid-19-6b166f1876e9

Yeah, as much shit they do/eat in countries like China but at least they react drastically before it's too late and the people living there take stuff like that also more serious.

At my work I still have to tell people not to shake each others hands all the time. We are around 1000 people at work, there are already some cases here (and it's not a big city) and the chance that someone is infected isn't small. But you still see every single employee shaking hands with like 50 other guys per day. 

According to their daily conferences, mortality rates in Italy might seem high but are very consistent with other countries adjusting by age bracket and case severity. Who knows how many younger people have been out there spreading the virus, undetected, and for how long. Quarantine might have started too late.

Trump has multiple risk factors: old age and too much weight. Maybe impeachement was unnessecary after all…

Maybe too much, sorry if this comment offends you.

Doesn't matter, as the virus is already spreading inside the US. So the danger of getting infected in the US is as high as people bringing it back from europe.

That is entirely possible. What is shocking is, that Italy has already a third of the deaths than China, but less than a fourth of infected. Seemingly the health system is overloaded and this drives up the mortality rate.

Also I expect more countries to surpass Chinas numbers, probably the US, germany, maybe Spain.

Yeah, the recent closing of schools is a good first step. I think it came a little late, but better late than never. But the other big vector of virus spread is public transportation. Officials are still too reluctant to hamper the businesses, but at this point I would be more concerned about helping the citizens and take care of the economy later.

The swine flu infected about 1 billion people and was found to be less severe than the seasonal flu. That is despite being much more aggressive towards healthy and younger people. You really expect this to be worse? This virus that is incredibly weak to a normal immune system and can be fought with soap?