.....and funny enough, it's the same media taking those relatively isolated incidents of "racism" and making it seem widespread so then it becomes more of an issue in people's minds. ......fuel on the fire.
As for the virus, yes, the media plays their part in making people panic but it also should be of concern to people. It's not necessarily the mortality rate of the virus itself but the resulting complications it can cause based on a myriad of other individual factors. Yes, the elderly are more susceptible but so are a lot of other people with lung problems (e.g. history of pneumonia, asthma, etc.), folks that are or have been recently ill, etc. For those with a compromised immune system, it doesn't necessarily mean having AIDS or some severe disease, cancer, etc.
Also, seemingly healthy folks can die from complications of viruses like pneumonia. My pulmonologist lost his friend who died from that after getting the flu. Very athletic and very healthy otherwise. .....stuff happens.
This season is already particularly bad flu season. I've been warned that that there are now two flus to watch out for (I already got one last year and had pneumonia myself). I can't afford to get another and certainly not something like this new coronavirus which seems to target people's respiratory systems (it had been compared to SARS which is something no one should simply shrug off).
.....btw, the doctor who initially raised awareness of this new virus died from it last week. .....he was just 34 years old.
This virus is spreading like wildfire over in China and cases are popping over here on the west coast. Personally, I'm glad the U.S. government with agencies like the CDC are taking the spread seriously and doing what they can to minimize the exposure of our citizens.
.....so no, I don't think it's being blown out of proportion in that sense but of course, the media will always try to sensationalize stories to make things sound worse than they really are. In short, I wouldn't just shrug this off but folks should use a little common sense to cut through the media BS.