Actually you need to look at both. IFR shows you how dangerous the disease is once you contract it. The yearly fatality rates shows how much risk you have from

Actually you need to look at both. IFR shows you how dangerous the disease is once you contract it. The yearly fatality rates shows how much risk you have from the disease in a given year. Covid is much more contagious than flu - so there is bigger risk that you will contract it eventually, but once contracted it might be not much worse. We still don't have comparable stats on that - even for flu the stats are really all over the place: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3809029 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3809029 """ There is very substantial heterogeneity in published estimates of case fatality risk for H1N1pdm09, ranging from <1 to >10,000 per 100,000 infections (Figure 3). Large differences were associated with the choice of case definition (denominator). Because influenza virus infections are typically mild and self-limiting, and a substantial proportion of infections are subclinical and do not require medical attention, it is challenging to enumerate all symptomatic cases or infections.2, 45 In 2009, some of the earliest available information on fatality risk was provided by estimates based primarily on confirmed cases. However, because most H1N1pdm09 infections were not laboratory-confirmed, the estimates based on confirmed cases were up to 500 times higher than those based on symptomatic cases or infections (Figure 3). The consequent uncertainty about the case fatality risk and hence about the severity of H1N1pdm09 was problematic for risk assessment and risk communication during the period when many decisions about control and mitigation measures were being made. """