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Topline
Patients admitted to a hospital with symptoms of Covid-19 are five times more likely to die than those with seasonal flu, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published Tuesday, one more indication that President Trump and some of his allies have been wrongly comparing the two diseases.
SANTA ROSA, CA – JULY 14: Scott Rocco exits the new hospital tent outside the Santa Rosa Memorial … [+]
Key facts
Among those hospitalized, 21% of Covid-19 patients surveyed died compared to 3.8% of influenza patients.
In addition, people with Covid-19 were hospitalized almost three times more and had a higher risk of suffering 17 respiratory and non-respiratory complications.
The agency evaluated data from the National Veterans Health Administration and compared 3,948 patients with Covid-19 between March 1 and May 31, 2020 and 5,453 patients between October 1, 2018 and February 1, 2020.
While Covid-19 patients tended to be slightly older than people hospitalized with influenza, people who contracted influenza were more likely to have an underlying medical condition, increasing the risks of serious symptoms among coronavirus victims. .
As seen throughout the pandemic, Black and Hispanic people were at a disproportionately higher risk of complications from both Covid-19 and the flu.
The report pointed to social, environmental, economic and structural inequalities as the reason.
Key Background
The CDC estimates that in the previous flu season, 38 million people were sick and 22,000 died. Nine months after the first confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the United States, there have been 8.2 million confirmed cases and 220,000 reported deaths. Public health experts are urging people to get a flu vaccine this year given the expected burden on hospitals and the increased risk of complications from contracting both diseases. Lockdowns and other social distancing policies appear to have slowed the spread of the flu last season. Trump was criticized and even verified by Twitter after he tweeted on October 6: “Flu season is coming! Many people each year, sometimes more than 100,000, and despite the vaccine, die from the flu. Are we going to close our country? No, we have learned to live with it, just as we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations, much less lethal !!! “
Large number
The full extent of Covid-19 damage is not yet known. Another CDC study released Tuesday found that there have been an excess of 300,000 deaths in the country, indicating that the official coronavirus morality tally is low.
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