COVID-19 refresher series: COVID is worse than the flu
ALPENA, Mich.– When discussing the coronavirus, you may hear some say it’s no worse than the flu. In week three of our COVID-19 refresher series, we ask Dr. Josh Meyerson how the flu and the novel coronavirus compare.
Before getting to the differences, let’s talk about what these illnesses have in common. John Hopkins Medicine says the coronavirus and the flu share a few symptoms, such as cough, fever, and aches.
They also say the viruses have similar methods of spread.
However, Dr. Josh Meyerson of District Health Department Number Four says the newness of the coronavirus, as discussed last week, lets it spread faster and cause more harm
“No humans had had previous infection to it. And what that means is that there was no immunity built up in our population. And without that, it can rapidly spread from person to person and quickly overwhelm a community.”
While both have relatively low case fatality rates— currently 1.9% for COVID and 0.1-0.2% for the flu— Meyerson says people need to remember how large that can be for a population in the hundreds of millions.
“Although that may seem small, one to two percent of the population leads to thousands of unnecessary deaths.”
He also says to keep in mind that these rough fatality rates show COVID–19 is about ten times deadlier than the flu.
Additionally, the coronavirus has a wide range of other symptoms the flu doesn’t cause.
These symptoms include a loss of smell or taste, swelling in the fingers or toes, and rashes.
Finally, one of the biggest differences between these diseases is COVID–19’s lingering effects after recovery.
“A lot of people who were infected with COVID unfortunately do have long–term complications. They can have complications to their lungs, to their heart, their kidneys, and even their brain.”
We’ll be learning more about these complications in next week’s installment.
