Coronavirus vs Flu

This is meant for those of you who aren't living with a chronic, disabling health condition, aren't caring for someone with a chronic health condition, or really don't know anyone with a chronic health condition and are worried and concerned about having to curtail your activities and be inconvenienced with the current viral scare which is, let's face it, no worse than the common cold and after all, the flu kills 1000's each year and we don't get all up in arms about it. For you, I have a few helpful, well meaning suggestions.

1. Have you tried reading a good  book?

2. Have you tried exercise?

3. Have you tried extra sleep?

4. Have you tried concentrating on other things?

5. Have you considered it's all in your head, a figment of your imagination?

6. Have you tried jogging?

7. Have you tried meditation
(Each of these have been said to me since I was diagnosed with LBD, mostly by well meaning family and friends)

8. Have you considered that although this is the same type of virus that causes the common cold it is a mutation of that virus (the novel coronavirus) that the world has never seen before, that no one has ever been infected with, that no one, until they survive the viral infection, has immunity to, that there is no immunization or cure for this virus, that the flu has a mortality rate of ~ .1 % compared to a mortality rate potentially over 3.4%  to as low as 1.4% for the coronavirus (effectively, the coronavirus is ~14-34 times more deadly than the seasonal flu).1 

9. Have you considered that, beginning with those in their 50's, the death rate increases dramatically for each decade of life you have lived beyond your 50's. By the time you're in your 80' you have a 14.8% mortality rate from this virus as compared to a 0.82% mortality rate for the flu, or, more practically, you have  approximately a 5.5% greater chance of dying from the coronavirus than the flu if you're in your 80's.1

10. Have you considered that the conservative infection numbers in the United States, if all measures are enacted when and as they should be is,"....the calculations based on the CDC's scenarios suggested, 2.4 to 21 million people in the United States could require hospitalization, potentially crushing the nation's medical system, which only has ~925,000 staffed hospital beds". This is in comparison to 370,000 to 670,000 flu hospitalizations.3

11. Have you considered that even President Trump no longer calls this virus a hoax and admits it is very serious.


12. Have you considered that you should take the appropriate safeguards to protect yourself and your loved ones. The life you save may be your own or that of an immunocompromised, chronically ill person of importance to you. It Can Infect You, you are not invincible nor is this virus anything similar to the flu or common cold, it is much more virulent and deadly.

Ref.:

1.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/health/coronavirus-flu.html How Does the Coronavirus Compare With the Flu?, 29 Feb 2020.
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/coronavirus-deaths-estimate.html Worst-Case Estimates for U.S. Coronavirus Deaths. 13 Mar 2020
3. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm 2019-2020 U.S. Flu Season: Preliminary Burden Estimates, 7 Mar 2020Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC twenty four seven. Saving Lives, Protecting Peop



Comments