I think it is comparable to the reaction to news stories about plane crashes vs reaction to news stories about car crashes. People are used to the flu the same as they are used to riding in cars and seeing car crashes. People are not as familiar with plane crashes. People get scared when they see a news story about plane crashes. The data (and there is actually hard data on this) shows that plane travel is much safer than car travel. People are not scared of car travel even when weaving through traffic while driving 15 mph faster than the flow.
On average fewer than 1,000 people a year world wide die in plane crashes. On average between 35,000 to 40,000 people die in car crashes in the U.S. alone.
At least 12,000 people per year die of the flu in the U.S. In the 2017-2018 flu season, an estimated 61,000 people died of the flu in the U.S. So far fewer than 4,000 people worldwide have died from this virus. Total infections are unknown, so death rates cannot be calculated accurately. To reiterate: to this point, more people have died from the flu in the U.S. than have died from COVID-19 worldwide. People should worry about protecting themselves from the flu more than from COVID-19. Fortunately, the measures used to protect yourself from COVID-19 are exactly the same as the measures used to protect against the flu. People should follow those measures, and more because of the disease that is absolutely known to kill people with hard data, than a disease that is new and "scary".
They seem to be spreading Coronavirus like Americans spread STDs.