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> I'm in no way part of the just-the-flu crew One thing I don't get is why saying C19 is "Just another Flu" is somehow taken as downplaying the virus. Seasonal

> I'm in no way part of the just-the-flu crew One thing I don't get is why saying C19 is "Just another Flu" is somehow taken as downplaying the virus. Seasonal Flu kills as many as 600,000 people annually. Do their lives not matter because they are taken by a regular old virus and not a novel coronavirus? And why doesn't the media report on every strain and mutation of the seasonal flu that could cause "long term effects"?

nickfromseattle 6y ago
COVID19 has caused 250,000+ additional deaths in the US on-top of whatever the normal flu kills in an average year. Here is a link for more information on 'excess death': https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid
conception 6y ago
Because Covid is about a magnitude more deadly. And seems to have more long term effects than the flu typically does. It’s not just another flu. Saying it is is downplaying it.
funcDropShadow 6y ago
The seasonal flu is a severe disease. Let's say it kills 600,000 people on average per year. That is not measured like the Covid death are measured in most countries. For the flu they take the excess death to estimate how many people died. But the majority of people are not tested. Whereas we are doing extremely hard counter measures against Covid-19, and we still have more deaths than for the seasonal flu. And the flu and Covid-19 season is just starting in the northern hemisphere. On top of that we have the long Covid phenomenon. But is's incidence is still unclear. But even if it is just 2% of Covid cases, that are ill for month (if not for years), that is really quite significant; even expensive for the economy. So, I don't see Covid-19 as "just like the flu".
foogazi 6y ago
We don’t lock down for Seasonal Flu and there is an annual vaccine for it with regular reminders to get your flu shot Covid-19 has been around for less than a year, no vaccine and, with a lockdown and closing our borders, has already killed 3x more than the seasonal flu in the US So it’s not like the flu

nickfromseattle 6y ago

COVID19 has caused 250,000+ additional deaths in the US on-top of whatever the normal flu kills in an average year. Here is a link for more information on 'excess death': https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid

conception 6y ago

Because Covid is about a magnitude more deadly. And seems to have more long term effects than the flu typically does. It’s not just another flu. Saying it is is downplaying it.

funcDropShadow 6y ago

The seasonal flu is a severe disease. Let's say it kills 600,000 people on average per year. That is not measured like the Covid death are measured in most countries. For the flu they take the excess death to estimate how many people died. But the majority of people are not tested. Whereas we are doing extremely hard counter measures against Covid-19, and we still have more deaths than for the seasonal flu. And the flu and Covid-19 season is just starting in the northern hemisphere. On top of that we have the long Covid phenomenon. But is's incidence is still unclear. But even if it is just 2% of Covid cases, that are ill for month (if not for years), that is really quite significant; even expensive for the economy. So, I don't see Covid-19 as "just like the flu".

foogazi 6y ago

We don’t lock down for Seasonal Flu and there is an annual vaccine for it with regular reminders to get your flu shot Covid-19 has been around for less than a year, no vaccine and, with a lockdown and closing our borders, has already killed 3x more than the seasonal flu in the US So it’s not like the flu