What Makes COVID-19 Different From the Flu?

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic is hard. TIME’s advice column is here to help. Trying to decide if that dinner party is safe to attend? Fighting through your quarantine fatigue? Our health reporters will consult experts who can help find a safe and practical solution. Send us your pandemic dilemmas at covidquestions@time.com, and we will choose some to answer in a column on TIME.com. Today, Judy Jones from Missouri asks: Please help. I have a few friends who refuse to take the risks of COVID-19 seriously. They claim that it is no worse than the flu, and that there have always been a certain amount of deaths each year from the flu. They still think that science is being misinterpreted for political reasons, etc. I look at the current statistics and cringe when I hear these arguments; and just the thought of more refrigerated trucks arriving to become morgues is overwhelming. Could you provide an article to help put our times in perspective? Or list some statistics to demonstrate how COVID-19 is so much more dangerous [than the flu]? To help understand the differences between COVID-19 and flu, I spoke to a few experts on both diseases, including Andy Pekosz—professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health— who has long warned people about the dangers of influenza. Amid the pandemic, he says that hearing people compare the flu to COVID-19 “borders on making me incredibly angry.” &...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID Questions COVID-19 Source Type: news