Challenges with Containment

Originally posted on jessy.io.

(written on Jan 26 unless "updated" is stated)

Informational/Educational

Lack of info transparency from the government (update: Singapore and Korea are doing quite well with this)
Public fear causing people with regular cold and flu to line up in the hospitals causing cross-contamination (e.g., a rough estimate of 10,000 people rushing into Wuhan hospitals which no city can handle this amount of patients at once)
Therefore, some from the most affected areas (e.g., Wuhan and Hubei) will try to "escape" and find cure elsewhere, especially before lockdowns happen, further spreading the virus
Most critical dangers lie within smaller towns and developing countries where the medical resources are not on par with larger cities and developed countries, and the lack of/slower public education on the crisis (e.g., earlier in the outbreak, middle-aged and older folks in China would still go to crowded places and other families' homes for Chinese New Year celebration)

Transportation/Logistical

It's Chinese New Year, where the migration of 3 billion people happens + Chinese public transportation is extremely efficient and so is the transmission of virus; though the break can also be advantageous keeping people indoors and not out working
5 million people came out of Wuhan to travel to domestic and international destinations before the lockdown
Lack of proper planning of resources feeding into the city after the shutdown; needless to say, towns nearby
Since the incubation period is 14 days or less (but we've seen cases of 24 days or more), another wave of the explosion of confirmed cases will appear. For example, many hospitals outside of Hubei province are asking for medical supplies help from the public, overriding the help of local government (e.g. hospitals from Sichuan and Guangzhou); we might see another "Wuhan" after the wave of workers going back to large cities for work

Virus itself

Odd cases of neural, optical, digestive, and cardiovascular symptoms as first signs (as opposed to rise in body temperature) and incubation period of up to 24 days with no symptoms (update: roughly 17.9% are asymptomatic cases) despite being infectious, making early detection and prevention hard in train stations and airports domestically and internationally; body temperature can also be lowered and faked with pills
Risk of the virus mutating into something more contagious and fatal
Exponential growth, exponential growth, exponential growth. Case, case, case, cluster, boom!
Update: many false-negative cases even after 3 or 4 times of testing. Also, many patients, as much as 14% in China, got confirmed positive again after being recovered. We are not sure if the recovery standards are too low or some patients do not develop immunity or other causes. Also, are they still able to infect others after their supposed recovery?

The future