---
title: "Virologist: China Virus Will Be At Least 10x Worse Than SARS"
description: "As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread, a prominent virologist predicts that it will be at least ten times worse than the 2003 SARS outbreak."
date: "2020-01-24"
modified: "2020-01-24"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/virologist-china-pandemic-worse-sars"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "2019-ncov"
  - "china"
  - "medicine"
  - "sars"
  - "wuhan"
---

# Virologist: China Virus Will Be At Least 10x Worse Than SARS

![As the Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread, a prominent virologist predicts that it will be at least ten times worse than the 2003 SARS outbreak.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/virologist-china-pandemic-worse-sars.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Kyle Simourd/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

As China struggles to contain the deadly coronavirus that originated in the city of Wuhan and has since spread throughout the world, disease experts have a grim outlook.

The pandemic naturally invites comparisons to the SARS outbreak of 2003, which killed over 700 people around the world. But Guan Yi, a virologist who helped identify SARS, [told *The Washington Post*](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/coronavirus-china-wuhan-latest/2020/01/23/2dc947a8-3d45-11ea-afe2-090eb37b60b1_story.html>) that "conservatively," the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic is likely to be at least ten times as bad as SARS.

"A bigger outbreak is certain," he told the *Post*.

SARS, Yi explained, didn't spread nearly as readily as the Wuhan coronavirus, and was more isolated within well-defined regions of China.

Meanwhile, the coronavirus has already spread to [at least five countries](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/mysterious-deadly-chinese-virus-reaches-us>), infecting at least 835 and killing at least 26, according to *WaPo*. But the numbers are ever-shifting and have been difficult to pin down, a problem that only complicates the official response to the pandemic.

"We have passed through the 'golden period' for prevention and control," Yi told *Caixin Magazine*, per *WaPo*. "What’s more, we've got the holiday traffic rush and a dereliction of duty from certain officials."

So far, the Chinese government has [quarantined entire cities](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-quarantines-three-cities-pandemic>) and tried to control the [flow of information](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/china-censored-pandemic-social-media>) surrounding the outbreak, moves that *WaPo* reports have residents feeling as though they've been left out to dry.

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)