“The flu season is coming! Every year many people, sometimes more than 100,000, and despite being vaccinated, die from the flu,” said President Donald Trump.
Tweeted. “Shall we close our country? No, just as we are learning to live with Kovid, we have also learned to live with him, in most of the population, in less lethal people!”
That’s not true. Covid is 19
More Fatal than seasonal flu.
Corona virus
Fever
- U.S. Department of Disease Control and Prevention According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention An estimated 22,000 people died in the last flu season. While the CDC says, “The exact time and duration of the flu season can vary,” most cases occur between October and May.
- If 22,000 people die between October 1 and May 31, there will be about 91 flu deaths in a single day over an eight-month period.
And in just eight months, Covid-19 has killed more people than the flu during the last five flu outbreaks.
For Trump’s claim that the flu kills “more than 100,000” people once a year, CDC data from 1976 to 2007 and 2010 show that it is not close.
There are many more reasons why Covid-19 is more dangerous than the flu – and why extra precautions are needed:
Coronavirus is more contagious than the flu
Research shows that an average person infected with the flu infects 1.28 other people.
But without mitigation efforts such as stay-at-home orders, a person with the novel coronavirus infects an average of 2 to 3 others.
The coronavirus spreads for several days without symptoms
With the flu, the incubation period is relatively short. People usually start feeling sick one to four days after infection, with symptoms appearing within two days, the CDC says.
This means that people who get sick with the flu will know that they are very sick and will probably stay home, avoiding contact with other people.
But according to Harvard Medical School, the incubation period from coronavirus is about three to 14 days, and “characteristic occurs within four or five days after onset.”
“We know that a person with COVID-19 can become infected within 48 to 72 hours before they start experiencing symptoms,” Harvard experts write. “Emerging research suggests that people are more likely to spread the virus within 48 hours before they start experiencing symptoms.”
It is easy for asymptomatic carriers to infect others, said Ann Remoin, professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s School of Public Health.
“When you speak, you’ll spit a few times,” he said. “You rub your nose. You can touch your mouth. You rub your eyes. And then you touch other surfaces, and then if you get infected and shed vaguely, you spread the virus.”
You can get the flu vaccine but not the coronavirus vaccine
Experts say that if more people get the flu, the number of flu deaths could drop sharply. Even if you get the flu vaccine and catch the flu later, the symptoms are usually less severe.
Although about half of Americans do not get vaccinated, most children die from the flu.
But with the coronavirus, no vaccine is available in public yet. So the best ways to control the spread (while improving the economy) is with personal responsibility – stay at least 6 feet away from those you don’t live with, wash your hands frequently and wear a face mask.
CNN’s Michelle Krupa contributes to this report.
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