Dr. Robert Hartwig was quoted by Business Insider on his perspective of the coronavirus’ impact on insurance. He says, “assuming an epidemiological outcome similar to the 2002 SARS outbreak, I would expect the impacts to the global property/casualty, life/health and reinsurance sectors to be minimal. This scenario assumes that the outbreak will continue to expand for a limited period of time and then begin to subside.”
While the coronavirus should be taken seriously, Dr. Hartwig points out that it needs to be kept in perspective. For example, according to the CDC, since 2010 the number of influenza deaths in the U.S. has run between 12,000 and 61,000 per year. As of February 27, WHO reported 2,804 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak worldwide.