Going back to find the references, I see I got both key numbers wrong. Thanks for challenging me on it. 2017-2018 saw an estimated 710,000 hospitalizations, th

Going back to find the references, I see I got both key numbers wrong. Thanks for challenging me on it. 2017-2018 saw an estimated 710,000 hospitalizations, the worst year on record. CDC Flu: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.ht... The COVID numbers I cited are weekly reported cases, not hospitalizations. I added a retraction message above. The total US deaths reported by CDC today are 616,459 over an 18 month period, which is more than 100 times the fatality-rate of flu in both the years you cite. CDC COVID: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrendsdeaths https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_dailytrends... The vaccine uptake means we should not see the awful rates of early 2021 again. We should focus on getting more vaccine uptake rather than mask debates.