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Comment by starefossen | Hacker News Reader

This is ridiculous! The seasonal flu virus is likely more deadly than COVID-19 [1] maybe we should ban all assemblies permanently then.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

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From your link:

CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 32 million flu illnesses, 310,000 hospitalizations and 18,000 deaths from flu.

The math: 0.0005625

From my link:

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/02/study-720...

They are saying COVID-19 is about 20 times more deadly than the flu, so I don't know why you think the opposite.

People with mild cases aren’t getting counted in the same way so that number is likely very incorrect. What we know is that we are very far of the death toll of seasonal flue which is estimated to be around 291,000 - 646,000 globaly.

The death toll is currently at 3,000 about 2 months after the Coronavirus first appeared in one location. The seasonal flu is caused by viruses that have been constantly circulating all around the world for years or decades. You can't really compare total deaths at this point.

That's like saying "I planted an oak tree last year. It's smaller than the pine trees that have been growing here for 50 years, therefore oak trees are smaller than pine trees"

https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/25/new-data-from-china-butt...

That is what the UK estimates for UK alone.

I'm seeing CFR estimates around 3% with an R0 of 3 or 4. That's a reason to be very concerned.

A WHO spokesman recently said he thinks it's unlikely we're systematically underestimating the CFR: https://www.statnews.com/2020/02/25/new-data-from-china-butt...

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