"Can you give meaningful context for how the current number of deaths due to Coronavirus compare to the average number of deaths caused by the flu every year?" -- Wes H.
This is a question KOSU has gotten a lot recently. So, as part of the America Amplified collaboration to strengthen public media reporting, we reached out to Dave Rosenthal. He's the managing editor for Side Effects Public Media, a healthcare reporting collaborative. America Amplified aims to put people, not preconceived ideas as the center of its reporting process.
Here is Dave's answer:
As you note, the new coronavirus is still sweeping through the U.S., so it's difficult to draw comparisons to past flu seasons. (And it's often hard to provide a detailed analysis in a short broadcast report.)
So looking at countries where the virus hit first may be helpful. For example, in February 2018, Spain reported that the flu season was the worst of the past decade — including the H1N1 scare in 2009. At the time, there were 472 seasonal flu deaths.
Compare that to the coronavirus, which has caused more than 8,200 deaths in Spain, according to Johns Hopkins' Coronavirus Resource Center. It's easy to see why public health experts are so worried about the power of COVID-19. (For updated stats: click here.)
If the worst U.S. flu season in recent years brought 56,000 deaths (2012-13), it's easy to see why forecasts for COVID-19 are much, much higher.
Parts of the U.S., including the Midwest and Southwest, have not had as many COVID-19 cases as coastal cities like Seattle and New York. But even in those regions, cases are rising rapidly — sometimes doubling in just a few days.
