Italy is pretty much in the news now because of the Covid-19 outbreak. It’s hard to tell what will become of it, but you have to see it in the context, that Austria alone has around a thousand deaths per year from influenza.
So, as tragic as every death is, what we see now is probably in the same ballpark as influenza. It might spread faster, but then, there is enormous effort to contain it.
It would be pretty nice though, if science found something cheap and effective against virus deceases for the next time. Something like antibiotics. Oh, and, please also a replacement for antibiotics, because they begin to fail.