The flu has killed far more people than coronavirus. So why all the frenzy about COVID-19?

You’ve seen it on social media, heard it at a cocktail party, and possibly you’ve even stated it your self.

“The flu has killed tens of 1000's extra individuals,” the road goes. “So why is everybody freaking out concerning the coronavirus?”

It’s an affordable query. In any case, each viruses produce comparable signs — fever, physique aches, cough, fatigue — and if you happen to stay in america, you might be at present a lot extra more likely to catch the flu than the brand new coronavirus that originated in China late final 12 months.

An estimated 32 million Individuals have come down with influenza since this 12 months’s flu season started in late September, leading to about 18,000 deaths, in response to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

In distinction, as of Thursday, well being officers have confirmed 97,876 instances of coronavirus an infection leading to 3,347 deaths throughout the whole globe.

Within the U.S., the variety of reported coronavirus infections is considerably smaller, with 177 reported instances and 11 deaths. That may be a minuscule fraction of the almost 330 million individuals residing within the nation as we speak.

So why all of the warnings from the CDC and different public well being companies about self-quarantines, college closures and different day by day disruptions after we stay by means of flu season annually?

What are we so scared about?

“I believe an enormous a part of it's concern of the unknown,” stated Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious illness skilled at UCLA. “The enemy you don’t know is far scarier than the enemy you already know.”

No vaccines, no medicines

Humanity has been contending with seasonal flu for hundreds of years, so scientists have had a very long time to check the influenza strains that flow into within the winter months.

This analysis has led to the event of annual vaccines that shield giant swaths of the inhabitants from getting the flu and scale back its severity in those that do develop into contaminated. As well as, there are medicines accessible that may deal with influenza signs and typically shorten the period of the sickness.

Additionally, when people come down with the flu, their our bodies construct up immunity. Which means not everybody who's uncovered to the flu virus will get sick.

However the coronavirus answerable for COVID-19 has been in existence for under about three months, so there isn't a pure immunity within the inhabitants.

And sadly, there isn’t a vaccine that may decide up the slack. Though a number of experimental vaccines are within the works, none shall be able to roll out for a minimum of 18 months, stated Dr. Hilary Marston, a coverage advisor on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.

Nor are there any medicines particularly designed to focus on this coronavirus, although researchers are testing present antiviral medicines to see in the event that they will help sufferers with COVID-19.

“Public well being measures are what we're going to must deal with for the foreseeable future,” Marston stated. That features fundamentals like washing your palms and overlaying your cough, in addition to extra disruptive issues like closing colleges, canceling public gatherings and implementing quarantines for many who might have been uncovered.

Extra coronavirus protection

Nonetheless studying the way it spreads

For public well being officers, one other trigger for concern is the lack of awareness about how simply the coronavirus spreads.

Scientists know that influenza is transmitted from individual to individual by droplets that go away a sick individual’s mouth after they cough, sneeze or discuss. These droplets can journey three to 6 toes and infect anybody of their path.

The coronavirus spreads by means of droplets as effectively, researchers say, and it could be able to airborne transmission too. Airborne viruses, like measles and chickenpox, can drift from individual to individual in even smaller droplets that may journey on air currents.

“That’s a really completely different factor,” stated Abigail Carlson, an epidemiologist at Washington College College of Medication in St. Louis. Amongst different issues, it implies that an contaminated individual can unfold the virus to somebody who's greater than six toes away, “in order that can be a part of the rationale for protecting individuals at a distance from each other.”

And researchers are nonetheless making an attempt to find out how lengthy the brand new virus can stay on surfaces like handrails, doorknobs and elevator buttons that could be touched by a whole bunch and even 1000's of individuals every day.

It isn’t but clear whether or not the coronavirus spreads as simply because the flu, nevertheless it has moved shortly. It has reached six continents in a matter of weeks with confirmed instances of COVID-19 in 89 international locations and territories. A few of these sufferers turned contaminated regardless of having no contact with anybody identified to be uncovered to the virus.

Greater fatality charge than seasonal flu

And right here’s one more reason well being officers are sounding the alarm: It seems that COVID-19 has the next fatality charge than the flu.

Though 4 out of 5 instances of COVID-19 end in delicate sickness, the director-general of the World Well being Group stated this week that the mortality charge of COVID-19 may very well be as excessive as 3.4%.

That will be larger than the mortality charge of the 1918 Spanish flu, which is estimated to have killed a minimum of 50 million individuals worldwide over two years. Amongst those that have been contaminated, the dying charge was round 2.5%.

Nonetheless, specialists stated the noticed COVID-19 dying charge is sort of actually an overestimate.

That’s as a result of the one individuals being examined for the coronavirus are these exhibiting signs of an infection. There may very well be simply as many individuals — and even perhaps extra — who've the virus however present no indicators of an infection, or have signs so delicate they weren't examined.

Yang stated it’s actually potential that the true variety of people who find themselves contaminated is 10 occasions higher than the quantity of people that have confirmed instances of COVID-19. In that case, the true fatality charge could be nearer to 0.2%, he stated.

However even that’s nonetheless larger than the seasonal flu, which had a fatality charge of as much as 0.14% final flu season, in response to knowledge from the CDC.

In the end, stated Yang of UCLA,you would possibly consider the coronavirus as a really unhealthy flu that may infect lots of people. That’s nonetheless trigger for fear.

“The flu is variable,” he stated. “There are some horrible flus just like the 1918 pandemic, and a few delicate ones. Coronavirus has the potential to be very unhealthy.”

Containment nonetheless value a attempt

And right here’s another reason to attempt to include the coronavirus: As a result of we simply would possibly be capable to do it.

“We don’t even speak about containment for seasonal flu — it’s simply not potential,” stated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO. “However it's potential for COVID-19.”

And if taking fundamental precautions saves even a couple of lives, isn’t that value it?