Why compare covid-19 to flu?

Author: Discipulus_Didicit 4 years ago

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Total: 40

Topic's author

#31

Discipulus_Didicit

Debates: 9

Posts: 5,758

Discipulus_Didicit

03.23.2020 08:28PM

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@TheDredPriateRoberts

I have not said one is significantly more deadly than the other

No, I am the one who said that. Then you pretended to agree with it in post 27. Now you are reneging on that.

Time for you to give a straight answer:

Can you acknowledge that covid-19 is significantly more deadly than flu or will you claim their death rate is roughly the same?

#32

TheDredPriateRoberts

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TheDredPriateRoberts

03.23.2020 10:23PM

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@Discipulus_Didicit

Then you pretended to agree with it in post 27.

care to share with the boys and girls where that was actually said by me?

(insert apology here)

that is what I wrote in post #27

Can you acknowledge that covid-19 is significantly more deadly than flu or will you claim their death rate is roughly the same?

I will do neither because I have not seen enough evidence one way or the other. There's plenty of theories and assumptions but those are merely opinions which we all have.

#33

GabiJohnson

Debates: 0

Posts: 4

GabiJohnson

03.24.2020 03:22PM

I am not an always-Trumper

I have been critical of his foreign policy before

#34

DBlaze

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Posts: 318

DBlaze

03.24.2020 07:20PM

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@Discipulus_Didicit

I believe the flu is more deadly than Covid-19. And DredPriate actually pointed it out to me why, and we didn't even think about it, but we both agree. 60,000 deaths in the US in 2017-2018 from the flu. I don't think Covid is going to amount to that.

And think about all the people that got vaccines for it, and have to get a new one every year because it mutates, imagine how many people would have died if there was no vaccine. There is no way that this disease would ever extinct us like Rational Madman is saying, not with how many we know actually do recover, he is one of those people that is causing panic and actually compromising otherwise healthy people's immune system. The only people being tested right now are very sick people, so we will never know the amount of how many were actually infected. We do know how many died though, so it will be easier to calculate next year when all of this is done, but will never, ever be spot on. Once they get a treatment and a vaccine, we will never hear about it again..... but the flu will still be around, killing millions of people.

Topic's author

#35

Discipulus_Didicit

Debates: 9

Posts: 5,758

Discipulus_Didicit

03.24.2020 07:30PM

60,000 deaths in the US in 2017-2018 from the flu. I don't think Covid is going to amount to that.

Wanna bet money on that?

#36

KingArthur

Debates: 1

Posts: 29

KingArthur

03.24.2020 09:05PM

With our tiny sample size so far, the fatality rate and rate of complication in COVID-19 are far, far higher than the flu.

But the flu as we know it has been around for a hundred years and we have infinite amounts of data on it, ways to combat it, treatments, vaccines. The flu holds no surprises for us anymore. Covid does. The raw numbers so far have it way, way more concerning than the flu at this point.

#37

TheDredPriateRoberts

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TheDredPriateRoberts

03.25.2020 12:55PM

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@KingArthur

I think the proper way to measure (if there is such a way) is looking at the number of people actually put on vents, needing to be admitted to a hospital and deaths. Time will tell I think.

#38

KingArthur

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KingArthur

03.25.2020 04:37PM

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@TheDredPriateRoberts

Um no you can be hospitalized and not need a ventilator for a whole host of other issues with both the flu and Covid... Something as simple as needing fluids takes up hospital space.

#39

TheDredPriateRoberts

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TheDredPriateRoberts

03.25.2020 06:28PM

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@KingArthur

right, which imo, while inconvenient is nothing to panic about, which is why I think we should focus on deaths and ventilations, that would be things to panic about, if one is so inclined to do so. So manufacturing has switched to produce ventilators based on some anticipated (not real) need. That's fine but it sure does seem of the positives a very small % need ventilators or any real hospitalization at this point.

Much of this is overlapped and murky at best, for instance people are tested for strep, flu and then covid if their symptoms merrit testing. If they have flu then that's that no need for covid testing which I think skews the stats in a very real way.

consider this, during the H1N1 season if you tested positive it was ASSUMED you had H1N1, they certainly would not and did not do the specific test to find out as the flu test will pick up 98%(ish) of the flu strains (specificity). Is the test they are doing now specifically for covid-19 or is it a coronavirus test? I have heard anything that specific. If it's a coronavirus test then some of those could be something other than covid-19, again skewing the stats.

11 days later

#40

Envisage

Debates: 3

Posts: 48

Envisage

04.06.2020 09:49AM

People are familiar with Flu. They have seen people suffer with it 1st hand, or had it themselves.

Very few people (particularly in Western communities) have experience with Coronavirus' such as SARS or MERS.

Thus it is simply easier and conveys more easily if comparing with Flu.

Not to say this is a sensible thing to do, of course Sars-COV2 is significantly more contagious and more lethal than seasonal influenza. The false sense of security from this comparison is damaging to people's response to it. The countries who had been hit by SARS had a much better response, I wonder how much of that is because of difference in how seriously the community takes it with that first-hand experience of an actual Coronavirus.