Bird flue, swine flue, west nile, SARS, and I'm sure I'm missing a few other world-ending diseases as well. We haven't wiped out 10% of the world population yet.
I don't think this is the correct way to reduce panic in the population:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRJG-DW-qhE
There are other videos you can find as well, but this is the extremes China is going through. If you look at the visuals, you would have to guess that the virus must have something closer to a 25% mortality rate than 2%. I don't know what the proper reaction is, but shutting down entire cities and raiding homes doesn't seem like a proper response short of an apocalypse.