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https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-deaths-vs-flu-deaths.html
COVID-19 is killing 20 times more people per week than flu does, new paper says
An image showing 35 coffins stored in a warehouse in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, on March 26, 2020, prior to be transported to another region to be cremated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Image: © PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
If there was any doubt that the new coronavirus isn't just "a bad flu," a new paper lays that myth to rest. The study authors found that in the U.S. there were 20 times more deaths per week from COVID-19 than from the flu in the deadliest week of an average influenza season.
"Although officials may say that SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] is 'just another flu,' this is not true," the authors, from Harvard Medical School and Emory University
School of Medicine, wrote in their paper, published today (May 14) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Related: How does the new coronavirus compare with the flu?
Ever since the new coronavirus was discovered in early January, people have compared it with the flu, pointing out that influenza causes tens of thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. alone. Indeed, during the current flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were up to 62,000 flu deaths in the U.S. from October 2019 through April 2020.
At a glance, this may appear similar to the toll of COVID-19, which as of early May, had caused about 65,000 U.S. deaths. (As of Thursday, May 13, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. was more than 82,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.)
But this doesn't match what health care providers are seeing on the frontlines of the pandemic, particularly in hot zones (such as New York City), "where ventilators have been in short supply and many hospitals have been stretched beyond their limits," the authors said.
This comparison is flawed because the CDC estimates of flu deaths are just that — estimates rather than raw numbers. The CDC does not know the exact number of people who become sick with or die from the flu each year in the U.S. Rather, this number is estimated based on data collected on flu hospitalizations through surveillance in 13 states.On the other hand, reported COVID-19 deaths are actual counts of people who died from COVID-19, not estimates. In other words, comparing estimates of flu deaths with raw counts of COVID-19 deaths is like comparing "apples to oranges," the authors said.
So for the new study, the researchers looked at actual counts of flu deaths per week, and compared those with counts of COVID-19 deaths.
COVID-19 is killing 20 times more people per week than flu does, new paper says
An image showing 35 coffins stored in a warehouse in Ponte San Pietro, near Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy, on March 26, 2020, prior to be transported to another region to be cremated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Image: © PIERO CRUCIATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
If there was any doubt that the new coronavirus isn't just "a bad flu," a new paper lays that myth to rest. The study authors found that in the U.S. there were 20 times more deaths per week from COVID-19 than from the flu in the deadliest week of an average influenza season.
"Although officials may say that SARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] is 'just another flu,' this is not true," the authors, from Harvard Medical School and Emory University
School of Medicine, wrote in their paper, published today (May 14) in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Related: How does the new coronavirus compare with the flu?
Ever since the new coronavirus was discovered in early January, people have compared it with the flu, pointing out that influenza causes tens of thousands of deaths every year in the U.S. alone. Indeed, during the current flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that there were up to 62,000 flu deaths in the U.S. from October 2019 through April 2020.
At a glance, this may appear similar to the toll of COVID-19, which as of early May, had caused about 65,000 U.S. deaths. (As of Thursday, May 13, the number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. was more than 82,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.)
But this doesn't match what health care providers are seeing on the frontlines of the pandemic, particularly in hot zones (such as New York City), "where ventilators have been in short supply and many hospitals have been stretched beyond their limits," the authors said.
This comparison is flawed because the CDC estimates of flu deaths are just that — estimates rather than raw numbers. The CDC does not know the exact number of people who become sick with or die from the flu each year in the U.S. Rather, this number is estimated based on data collected on flu hospitalizations through surveillance in 13 states.On the other hand, reported COVID-19 deaths are actual counts of people who died from COVID-19, not estimates. In other words, comparing estimates of flu deaths with raw counts of COVID-19 deaths is like comparing "apples to oranges," the authors said.
So for the new study, the researchers looked at actual counts of flu deaths per week, and compared those with counts of COVID-19 deaths.
