Yes, Coronavirus Is More Troubling Than the Flu
Common seasonal bugs claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year. But statistics are squishy and comparisons are misguided.
Does this look like a regular flu to you?
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergIs the world losing its collective mind about coronavirus? So far 1,115 people have died from the infection — all but 45 of them at the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan province, and only two of them outside China.
By contrast, some 10,000 people have died this winter from influenza in the U.S. alone, and worldwide between 290,000 and 650,000 people die each year from seasonal flu. H1N1 swine flu, which first emerged in Mexico and quickly spread across the globe, ultimately killed between 151,700 and 574,600 people in its first year alone. Instead of worrying about the progress of coronavirus in China, shouldn’t we be asking about that public-health failure?