The article that references 80k flu related deaths in 1980 was an estimate by an individual at the time the article was written. There is another article online that references 52k flu related deaths for the same year. The number of reported flu related deaths in 1980 were lower than 80k (check the CDC). The number of actual flu deaths in any given year is unknown (death certificates don’t always identify the underlying cause of a death). Which is why the CDC utilizes modeling to estimate a death range for the flu in any given year.
That is why the mortality rate, versus actual deaths, is important when considering a threat. 9 people dying from a virus might sound insignificant. However, that same number is much more significant if only 10 people were exposed to a virus in an isolated environment and 9 people died (90% mortality rate).
The mortality rate for the flu is roughly .1% in any given year. The mortality rate for COVID 19 in the US (with one of the best healthcare systems in the world) is roughly 5%. COVID 19 has a mortality rate 50 times greater than the flu. And the hospitalization rate for COVID 19 versus the flu is even worse.
The worst version of Small Pox has a mortality rate of 30%. So Small Pox is 6 times deadlier than COVID 19, and COVID 19 is 50 time deadlier than the flu. Another similarity for COVID 19 versus Small Pox is that we no longer has a stock pile of Small Pox vaccine, and we have no vaccine for COVID. So why not compare COVID 19 to Small Pox (both are viruses)?
Because the only people who compare COVID 19 to the flu are ignorant people (and Fox News) trying to downplay the issue. There have been days that the death toll in the US from COVID 19 has exceeded 2k people. However, no intelligent people are arguing that 730k people will die from the virus this year.
There were roughly 15 cases of COVID 19 identified in the US in early February (Trump referenced this number with the statement that all were recovering and there would soon be zero cases). There are currently roughly 819k cases in the US with roughly 45k deaths. Less than 3 months later! Those numbers occurred with unprecedented restrictions put in place to help control the spread.
Maybe at some point when the final number of cases are known, the mortality rate will be lower. And at that time, the ignorant people who today compare this to the flu can say they told us so. I hope they can because the alternative sucks. Until then, people can argue that the US over reacted without making ill informed comparisons. I suspect most will probably still sound like idiots though.
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