Yes, the "normal" flu kills many more people than this beer virus. And the beer virus doesn't seem like it's going t o reach those kind of numbers.
But, how can we tell it's time to run/hide/hunker down if/when an actual killer virus does show up? How to tell when the "Aw *expletive deleted*it!" moment has arrived?
A bit of a personal decision based on your own risk tolerance and whatnot. Detection and reporting will lag actual infections. Anyway, I personally wouldn't be particularly concerned until the following conditions are met:
1) Community spread in the local region / contact tracing has broken down.
2) Disease that is significantly infections /easily spread.
3) Disease has significant mortality rate for otherwise healthy folks.
This would prompt me to limit contact with people as much as possible, become more fastidious about hand hygiene and carefully watch local developments.
My wife and I are both tied into the medical industry, so it's entirely possible that either or both of us will become involved as part of the response effort, which also increases risk, but so be it - somebody needs to help folks fighting for their lives.
