No, this article takes potential worst-case scenarios and positions them as if they were fact. There are more cases than what the US is presenting but they present confirmed cases like every other country.

The UK has tested over 26,000 people and had only 373 positives. This means over 25,000 people tested negative! It’s not as good a headline though because it doesn’t tap into people’s fear.

This article reports the range of “20–1500” people for Seattle knowing full well people will assume the worst.

It does not settle on the point about the fatality rate likely to be lower than what is reported. Most people have a mild case.

The current estimates for the death rate amongst children are so low it rounds to 0%. For adults under 40, it is 0.2%. If you are healthy, the rate is even lower because many of those dying had underlying health conditions.

The focus should be squarely on those vulnerable, not encouraging mass hysteria.

With any disease testing, more people are going to increase the number of cases. It draws in those who experience such mild cases they wouldn’t bother to get checked. This is important but the apocalypse is not near.

The article says the data is confusing but doesn’t actually give recommendations on how to react to the data. “It will be hard to disambiguate” instead of “if the number of cases increases rapidly, it may just be to testing so there is no need to think the spread has suddenly got worse”. Maybe you can interpret that but others can’t. Others will get confused by their wording. The parts which reduce anxiety are in the middle whereas if like many you just read the beginning and end you’ll be left feeling more worried.

I recommend the below resources. They focus on the UK but they are well written, factual and give rational advice.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cyz0z8w0ydwt/coronavirus-outbreak
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019