If HIV had the same response as this year's coronavirus is getting, it would've been stopped dead in its tracks. Meanwhile people around the world would say governments overstepped their bounds, fear ran rampant, and it really wasn't that dangerous--the common cold kills more in absolute numbers.
We really don't know much about the disease yet. SARS had a huge fatality rate, but it was well contained. If it weren't and absolutely nobody panicked or worried, it would've decimated some urban centers. Sometimes it's fine to be extra careful in the beginning and easing up only after you're certain that it's not that bad, and unknown diseases are one of those times. Taking a more carefree approach doesn't look so good if deaths start tallying up.
Remember - there are still people who believe the earth is flat - when you're up against that basic ilk of intellect, the World becomes a strange place very easily when you push a few variables.
Even sadder is, most people will think of this CV as the flu of the year and with that, many statistics will become entwined.
In this case say 100 people got SAR - 10 people die Now Flu - 1000 people get that and - same net result.
Lets face it, how many got SARS in total - less than 10k How many people catch the flu each year? - millions litterly millions.
But as with most of these - it is overall health and underlying preexisting conditions that can and do skew statistics and not all countries log things to the same standard.
If you did what China is doing now to deal with flu, you'd drastically cut transmission rates.