Disclaimer: Hardly the most knowledgeable on these matters around here, so take speculation with a heavy dose of NaCl. Manufacturing of transportation exports in China has been stopped. Entertainment industry is being affected as well - both in China and Italy. Swine Flu probably got closest to this, but Ebola and Zika never got close. From the article: The article has a nice theory on where the needle of politics will tip. The writer calls Bernie and Trump heralds of politics of affluence’s end, and coronavirus as a catalyst for DOOM! Sorry, er, change. Yes, we’ll feel the effects of manufacturing halting. Yes, it will crop up further in debates. This IS a pandemic - much like the depression was felt worldwide. [EDIT: we’re not quite at Defcon-5 yet.] But if manufacturing fizzles out with mortality rates staying low, then this will be a recoverable bout. Watching which manufacturers start back up and how they stay back up will be a good indicator. Affluence politics is not the politics of being wealthy, though, but rather the politics of not paying attention to what creates wealth in the first place. That is to say, it’s the politics of ignoring our ability to make and distribute the things people need. With the banking collapse in 2008, the election of Trump in 2016 and his mourning of empty factories, and now with Bernie Sanders dominating the early primaries, that era may at last be passing. A pandemic disease outbreak would only hasten this progression and force us back into the politics of production.