The biggest concern with this COVID-19 is that there is not much they can do about it. If you have the "Flu", you can get treated for it i.e... antibiotics, z-pack,..etc...In another words there is a little bit of "security" with the other types of Flu's versus the coronavirus(COVID-19).
With the coronavirus, It's pretty much "tough it out and hope you make it"...which most do but those that don't it's death at the worst.. I don't know about you but I don't want to catch something where there is nothing anybody can do about it as of now and you stand a chance (it's slim) of actually dying from it. It seems to be a lot more contagious then other Flu type illnesses. I've been around people that were at their peek with the Flu...Just awful they way they were feeling and I didn't catch anything (lucky me those times). I would go to work and people would show up sick coughing and sneezing all around me and most of the healthy people didn't catch anything and were ok including me. But COVID-19 seems a lot lot more contagious and takes longer for the symptoms to show.
Oh, and just because you don't die from catching it, doesn't mean you will not suffer serious long term issues. Again, most folks recover just fine but it's that small percent that don't that's driving the "Fear" around.