Originally posted by mkgd1 That is just not true. Check out the CDC website, do not take my word for it...2019/2020 flu season for USA 23,000 to 59,000 deaths, 38 to 54 million illnesses 390,000 to 710,000 hospital visits. What exactly am I denying?
The problem is, some people are comparing the end-of-season totals of flu infections, deaths and hospital visits to those of the rapidly spreading, not yet peaking, COVID-19 and concluding that flu is worse. But flu viruses are mostly well understood, quite well controlled through vaccination, and have a much lower rate of spread, putting far less strain on health services. COVID-19 is far worse because its not well understood, there's no vaccine, and it spreads at a much higher rate. Furthermore, COVID-19 can have an unusually long incubation period, during which the carrier may be more-or-less symptom free but is capable of spreading the disease due to viral shedding. Then, only a small percentage of those showing symptoms of potential infection are actually being tested; the rest are merely being advised to self-isolate. As such, we can be quite certain that the number of people currently infected is much higher than reported, and the number requiring hospital treatment is very soon going to outstrip availability of intensive care hospital beds and possibly qualified staff.
I'm sure you already know and understand all of this, but it's clear that some folks don't, they're not taking enough precautions or listening to official advice as a result, and therefore they're part of the problem, putting themselves and others at risk. They may be infecting and, ultimately, killing people without knowing it.
The above isn't a scary story - it's what we
know from the experiences of China, Italy and now the rest of Europe. The US is starting to experience rapid spread too. It may not look too bad right now, but at the daily rate of spread, hospitalisation and deaths, the potential impact looking ahead, say, 14 - 28 days is shocking