How badly prepared is the world for a coronavirus pandemic?

By Debora MacKenzie

Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

LAST week, the World Health Organization raised its assessment of the global risk from the novel coronavirus to Very High – its maximum level. The virus has escaped containment in at least four countries.

But the WHO is eager for nations to keep practising containment measures (see “Why the WHO won’t use the p-word”). These can slow the spread of the virus in countries that only have a few cases. But as long as it is circulating somewhere in the world, new cases will …