Comparing mortality from influenza and COVID-19: the difference is simply incredible

“Flu season is coming. Every year, despite the vaccine, about 100,000 people die from the flu, Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. – Will we close our country? No, we learned to live with it [su gripu], just as we learn to live with Covid, which is less lethal in many countries, [kaip gripas]!!! “

But this is not true. COVID-19 is much more likely to die than the flu, he writes. CNN.

Coronavirus

In the eight months since the coronavirus in the US, 210,700 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Dividing the number of deaths by days would mean that an average of about 867 people have died a day since February 6, when the first death from coronavirus was recorded.

Influenza

The flu has claimed 22,000 lives in the United States in the last flu season, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the CDC, the start and length of the flu season vary, but generally occurs between October and May.

Dividing the 22,000 deaths from October 1 to May 31, we would have 91 deaths per day during the 8 months of the flu season.

And since COVID-19, more people have died in eight months than in five flu seasons combined.

As mentioned, D. Trump wrote on Twitter that the flu sometimes kills 100,000 people a year. But the CDC provides different data from 1976-2007. period and from 2010 onwards.

Tighter protective measures are needed, as COVID-19 is significantly more dangerous than influenza for several reasons:

The coronavirus infects much faster than influenza

Studies show that one person with the flu infects 1.28 people. Without protective measures (home quarantine, etc.), an average person with coronavirus infects 2-3 people.

After being infected with a coronavirus, you may not have symptoms for many days.

The incubation period for influenza is quite short. According to the CDC, people feel unwell between one and four days after infection, and symptoms usually appear within the first two days.

This means that people get sick with the flu fairly quickly and will definitely stay home so as not to spread it to others.

In the case of the coronavirus, the incubation period is 3 to 14 days and symptoms appear 4 to 5 days after infection, according to Harvard University School of Medicine.

“We know that a person infected with COVID-19 can infect others for 48 to 72 hours before symptoms appear,” write the Harvard experts. “According to a new study, people are more likely to infect others within 48 hours before symptoms start.”

Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California School of Public Health, said that asymptomatic carriers of the virus can easily infect those around them.

“When you talk, sometimes you salivate,” he said. “You rub your nose, you touch your mouth, you scratch your ear, you touch the surface and so you transmit the virus if you are infected with it but do not feel any symptoms.”

You can get vaccinated against the flu and not against the coronavirus

According to experts, the number of deaths from influenza can be greatly reduced if more people get vaccinated against influenza. If you get the flu after you have been vaccinated, your symptoms will be much milder. In the United States alone, for example, about half the population is not vaccinated against the flu and many children die from it.

There is no vaccine for the coronavirus yet. So the most appropriate way to control its spread is everyone’s personal personality. It is advisable to maintain a social distance of 2 m with the people with whom you do not live, wash your hands frequently, disinfect them and wear a mask.