Is it overblown? Is it underestimated?

As this is written, Americans have been warned that it’s a matter of when, not if, the new and menacing coronavirus will spread across the nation. That would mean it has escaped its bounds from the confirmed cases in the U.S.—fewer than 100 last week—into the realm of thousands, or tens of thousands, the sum that China is trying desperately to contain.

We hear of the deaths of young medical workers. We read of a quarantined cruise ship where the infections kept rising in spite of isolation of its passengers. We learn of a new case in California with no known source of infection related to travel or other victims. Suddenly Washington State is the center of cases and deaths.

Does it take two weeks to incubate? Four weeks? Will there soon be a vaccine? Does it spread through the air

Through plumbing? Those questions still lack answers.

Then there is the corollary position that the whole crisis is being pumped up by the media and even...