Crown vs. influenza: – Study: much more serious than influenza

Covid-19 has a higher death rate than seasonal flu, the renowned Lancet magazine concludes in a recent study.

The results are based on figures of almost 90,000 French patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between March 1 and April 30, and 46,000 hospitalized influenza patients between December 1, 2018 and February 2019.

The death rate of patients with covid-19 was three times higher than that of seasonal flu. Several in the first group required intensive treatment and were hospitalized on average twice as long as those with the flu.

– Our study confirms that Covid-19 is much more serious than the flu, says Professor Catherine Quantin, first author behind the study in a press release.

– The findings showing that the death rate from covid-19 was three times higher than seasonal flu are particularly surprising. Especially when you consider that the 2018/19 flu season was the worst France has had in five years when it comes to deaths, he explains.

– No immunity

Frode Forland, director of infection control at the National Institute of Public Health (NIPH), is not particularly surprised by the results of the studies.

– The findings confirm what we already know and emphasize the importance of keeping infection pressure low, he tells Dagbladet.

The director of the subject believes that an explanation may be that covid-19 mainly affects the elderly who are already more vulnerable to diseases. In the case of influenza, on the other hand, young people are more susceptible to the disease, but young people are generally more resistant.

The researchers behind the study emphasize that the difference in the length of hospitalization may be explained in part by the existing immunity to influenza in the population. This can be due to a previous infection or a vaccination. Covid-19, on the other hand, is a new virus to which few people have developed immunity.

Details of the new vaccine

Forland agrees with this.

– There is a clear connection between how many are infected and how many become seriously ill. Covid-19 is something that few have immunity to. Therefore, more people will become infected and sick.

– Includes only the sickest

Michael Durheim, a researcher and pulmonologist at Rikshospitalet, notes that the study only included COVID-19 patients who were so ill that they were admitted to hospital. If the entire population had been screened, including those without symptoms, the death rate compared to the flu might have been different.

– In the state of the pandemic, testing capacity varied, which meant that only the sickest were tested for covid-19. Therefore, it is assumed that there are a large number of dark people and many more who have been infected without this being confirmed, he tells Dagbladet.

– As test capacity increases and more people are tested, we see that the death rate from covid-19 falls and the real mortality becomes more representative, explains the pulmonologist.

Measures and immunity

An estimated 900 people die as a result of the flu on average each year, but these numbers vary widely, according to the National Institute of Public Health (Fhi). By comparison, around 400 people have died from COVID-19 so far.

– These figures show that the measures have had a great effect in Norway and that we have managed to keep the infection pressure low. Had we not had action in Norway, the numbers would have looked different, according to the FHI director of issues.

Durheim also notes that different measures can explain different death rates in different countries, but he thinks the degree of immunity may be important.

This means the mutation of the vaccine.

– Different populations may have different degrees of immunity, and in Norway several may have been exposed to other coronaviruses, which can give a partial protective response if infected with covid-19, he says.

Fewer children admitted

The researchers also found that fewer children under the age of 18 were admitted with COVID-19 compared to the flu. The under-five mortality rate was low for both viral infections.

– We have seen that children get sick less and are less contagious. The reason for this is probably related in some way to the mechanisms of the immune system of children, and experience shows that COVID-19 becomes more severe as one ages, Forland says.