No one really knows how hard COVID-19 will hit the world: It’s impossible to trust any data out of China, and it’s too early to learn much from coronavirus cases in other nations. And even “experts” can be deceptive.

We’re thinking in particular of the World Health Organization’s Bruce Aylward, who told reporters Tuesday in Geneva: “Big conclusion for the world is — it’s simply not ready.”

More: The world “could get ready very fast, but the big shift has to be in the mindset of how we’re going to manage the disease.”

Risibly, he suggested imitating China — which, in fact, clearly bungled the early stages of its epidemic.

Reality check: Back in October 2014, Aylward warned that new global Ebola cases could reach 10,000 a week “by the first week in December.” In fact, they hit just 529 that week.

As Michael Fumento noted in these pages at the time, “the Ebola epidemic peaked a full month before” Aylward made his prediction — and WHO data showed it.

The sad truth is that global health bureaucrats use these outbreaks to push for greater funding, with utter disregard for the truth.

Go ahead and prepare in case COVID-19 does break out in America — but watch out for self-interested panic-mongers, too.