IN THE KNOW

THE THINGS WE DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE WUHAN CORONAVIRUS

Scientists don't yet understand what proportion of infected people will die of the new Coronavirus, or how many people on average each carrier might infect. We don't know how many cases there are likely to ultimately be, and that means epidemiologists can't yet create computer models to predict the future of the outbreak.

We're not certain whether the virus can spread before symptoms show, but it's looking likely that it can. We don't know how or when it crossed over from bats to humans. And it's strange that the first victim of the virus doesn't seem to have any connection whatsoever with the Wuhan food market where it all started.

We have no real idea if every case is equally infectious, whether some people simply don't pass it on, and whether there's such a thing as 'super-carriers' who spread it farther and faster than average. And we don't really know whether it's only deadly for people who are old, vulnerable or already ill.

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THE THINGS WE DO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS

We do know some things about the Wuhan outbreak. We know it could end up in one of three scenarios:

• It fails to adapt quickly enough so peters out once it has spread to several successive people
• We block its spread so well with drugs, quarantine and vaccines that it dies out, like we did with SARS in 2003
• The virus spreads like flu until most people have been exposed to it, then it burns out because it runs out of hosts or becomes a disease that usually only affects children who haven't been exposed

If it goes global the virus could join the club of viruses that includes flu, which endlessly circulates the human population year after year, causing 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness and as many as 650,00 deaths every year.

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TRAVEL INSURANCE AND CORONAVIRUS

Travel insurance is affected. The Malaysian government has advised people to delay all non-essential travel to China. The Wuhan Coronavirus is a known event, not an unforeseen event, and many insurers are saying that since it's currently unsafe to travel to China, they can't offer any new travel insurance policies for trips there until the outbreak is stopped. And anyway, most travel insurance policies don't offer coverage for pandemics like the coronavirus.

Some travel insurance – usually the most expensive – provides trip cancellation benefits. If so your travel insurer might refund you if there are cancellations to flight tickets, hotel bookings, even your holiday deposit. This is only on offer, though, when you bought the travel insurance a certain amount of time before your travel date.

MEDICAL AND CRITICAL ILLNESS INSURANCE AND CORONAVIRUS

If you have symptoms, you might be able to claim on your medical insurance policy. Medical insurance policies are designed to cover expenses for hospitalisation and treatment.

The Wuhan coronavirus technically falls under an exemption to this rule as a 'communicable disease requiring quarantine by law', which means medical insurance might not ordinarily pay out. On the other hand, 31st January 2020 saw the Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) and the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) say that despite the exclusion clause, all life insurance and takaful operators in Malaysia will provide hospitalisation and treatment cover for policyholders with the Wuhan virus. Many major insurance companies have also confirmed they've extended medical coverage for coronavirus patients.

As far as critical illness insurance goes, the Wuhan coronavirus is not a critical illness, so you can't make a claim.

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LIFE INSURANCE AND CORONAVIRUS

Some life insurance policies pay out a lump sum if you catch an infectious disease. But the diseases covered are very specific as well as pre-determined. If it isn't on the list, it isn't covered. If you die from the virus, your life insurance payout isn't affected. There are no exclusion clauses for deaths caused by illnesses in life insurance.

BUSINESS INTERRUPTION INSURANCE AND CORONAVIRUS

Some big global brands buy insurance for infectious diseases, but most standard policies exclude outbreaks like this to keep costs down. This means most businesses will have to pay for disruption caused by the coronavirus simply because epidemics are almost always excluded from regular business insurance cover. Experts predict businesses worldwide will lose billions of dollars, and many might have to close permanently.

Asia's hospitality industry, as you can imagine, is already being affected, but with Starbucks becoming the first major US brand to confess to a financial hit from the virus, Asia is only the beginning of a worldwide story.

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