Looking at the statistics for COVID-19, the new coronavirus, and at the statistics for seasonal influenza, it appears that the worldwide reaction is unreasonable, over the top for COVID-19, or the casual reaction to seasonal influenza is insufficient.
Current seasonal influenza is the A H1N1, the same one that killed over 50 million people in 1918. Despite having an immunization, there has been more that 290,000 deaths worldwide, as reported by WHO.
The WHO reports over 23,593 deaths from COVID-19, worldwide. Out of 520,395 confirmed infections, 123,322 have recovered from the infection. Both viruses are basically airborne for transmission, with some surface contamination risk. Both are most dangerous to the very young, elderly, and those with chronic illnesses, especially heart and lung diseases. Precautions taken to avoid illness are essentially the same for both viruses.
Therefore, why isn’t the seasonal influenza considered a pandemic and receiving the same news coverage?
