Are you more likely to die from coronavirus or the flu? There’s a big difference
Editor’s note: On Tuesday, March 3, North Carolina reported its first case of COVID-19, in a Wake County resident who was exposed at a Washington state long-term care facility. Find details on the case here.
»» What to know about coronavirus in California: Find more updates here.
Much is still unknown about the coronavirus after officials announced the first U.S. case with unknown origins on Thursday.
But according to doctors at Johns Hopkins, there’s a far more prevalent virus at hand — influenza.
“As of Feb. 26, 2020, the flu is showing much more of an impact on Americans than COVID-19,” Dr. Lisa Maragakis, senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins, said in an article explaining key characteristics of the two viruses.
China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimated a fatality rate among coronavirus patients in mainland China — where COVID-19 first appeared in late 2019 — of about 2.3 percent as of Feb. 24.
That statistic had risen to 3.4 percent globally as of March 3, according to World Health Organization.
“By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected,” the WHO’s director-general said during a media briefing.
Of more than 82,000 confirmed cases globally, Johns Hopkins reports about 2,800 have died.
One person has died in Washington state, according to state and county health officials.
More than 50,000 people have recovered from the illness, Newsweek reported.
By comparison, the flu kills an estimated 291,000 to 646,000 people worldwide every year, Maragakis said. Between 12,000 and 61,000 of those deaths occur in the U.S.
Here’s a breakdown of the numbers estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this flu season:
| Flu Illnesses | Flu Hospitalizations | Flu Deaths |
| 29 million | 280,000 | 16,000 |
But there’s a separate cause for alarm concerning the coronavirus, according to Live Science.
Citing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, the science news website reported that scientists are familiar with the ebb and flow of flu season — how deadly it can be and when it ends, in particular.
“The issue now with (the coronavirus) is that there’s a lot of unknowns,” Fauci said during a White House press briefing on Jan. 31.
Without knowing when the rate of coronavirus infections is likely to curb or how to cure it, it’s difficult to say which virus is “worse.”
Here’s how the flu and coronavirus compare
According to Johns Hopkins, influenza and COVID-19 share similar symptoms and can be transmitted, treated and prevented in similar ways.
But the cause, vaccinations, number of infections and mortality rates widely differ.
| Flu | Coronavirus | |
| Symptoms | fever, cough, body aches, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea | fever, cough, body aches, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea |
| Transmission | person to person contact | person to person contact; also possibly airborne |
| Treatment | antibiotics don’t work; treat the symptoms | antibiotics don’t work; treat the symptoms |
| Prevention | washing hands; avoiding sick people and spread of germs | washing hands; avoiding sick people and spread of germs |
| Cause | Strains of the influenza virus | The 2019 coronavirus, now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2 |
| Vaccination | Yes | No (in progress) |
| Infections | 1 billion globally | More than 82,000 globally |
| Deaths | 291,000 to 646,000 globally | Roughly 2,800 globally |
Sources: Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE and Johns Hopkins Medicine
This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 5:13 PM with the headline "Are you more likely to die from coronavirus or the flu? There’s a big difference."
