SocraticGadfly: Coronavirus: Officially not "just the flu"

April 24, 2020

Coronavirus: Officially not "just the flu"

Many people claimed that early on. Sadly, certain Greens, along with alt-right types, are proving there is some truth to the horseshoe theory, by claiming that, if not a hoax, it's being overhyped and overpushed. The usual angle among a stereotyped portion of Greens: Antivaxxers worried about Big Pharma doing a forced vaccination. Well, per the old issue, your rights end where my face, and my breathing space, begin.

As for the facts on the ground?

US  deaths are past 50,000 now, with less than 2 months of in-depth testing. That's more than, on average, the CDC estimates the flu kills each year, and it's approaching the worst flu year in the last decade. By the end of next weekend, we'll likely be past that 61,000 worst year case on flu deaths.

So, let's just stop this nonsense.

Beyond that (update), Jeremy Samuel Faust notes that COVID deaths are actual statistics, while annual flu deaths are guesstimates run through algorithms. And he's right in one way; having reported on flu seasons before, I know that pneumonia is used as part of the calculations, whether directly linkable to a flu infection or not.

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