COVID-19 FAQs, page 10
10. So this is like a flu? What is the big deal?
This is a complex question with multiple answers.
It is true that this is a respiratory disease that is efficiently transmitted from person to person from droplets of infected patients, just like the flu. However, COVID-19, at least from the data available, which may or may not be complete, has a fatality rate of 2.0% to 3.4%. Seasonal flu has a mortality rate of 0.1%, so this may be a much more serious infection.
As more is learned about COVID-19 and all the asymptomatic cases are identified and accounted for, this higher mortality rate may drop. More significantly, this is a new disease, and no one knows very much about it. Furthermore, we live in an age barraged with information 24/7. Social media and the spread of information/disinformation are pervasive, and people can be updated by the news media almost as soon as it is produced.
This flu season, there have been 29 million cases, resulting in 280,000 hospitalizations and 16,000 deaths just in the U.S. That is between four and five deaths per day, but that is hardly mentioned in the media. However, the first death from COVID-19 in the U.S. sent the whole country spinning. Each night in the news, the new death count is announced without commenting on the number of flu deaths. We are now at 696 cases and 25 deaths, which is dwarfed by the 16,000 flu deaths. People fear the unknown, and COVID-19 is going to have a significant impact in the U.S. at least on the short term.
