Four reasons why Covid-19 is more deadly than flu

Annual, seasonal flu and the current coronavirus pandemic can appear very similar – both spread in similar ways, have similar symptoms, and both can kill.

However, the global response to the new coronavirus has been very diverse – and there are four main reasons, reports The Mirror.

According to national statistical offices, the new coronavirus has killed more than 64,000 people in the UK so far this year.

According to Public Health England, an average of 17,000 people die of flu each year in England.

Here are four ways Covid-19 is different from seasonal flu.

Scientists have not yet seen human immunity to Covid-19

We don’t have a vaccine for Covid-19 yet, while the NHS offers a new flu shot every year that combats the latest seasonal strain.

Scientists say Covid is more common than seasonal flu – and our lack of immunity is a major factor.

Airborne virus expert Professor Linsey Marr, who lectures civil and environmental engineering at the University of Virginia Tech, told the Huffington Post that more people are more likely to get the coronavirus than the flu in a given room, and this is not due to the nature of the virus itself, but to the lack of immunity in the population.

Some people who carry Covid-19 show no symptoms

Covid-19 and the flu share several symptoms, including a high temperature and a cough. Both could see that you were experiencing a dry cough and with Covid the cough was persistent.

While people with the flu often have headaches and loss of appetite.

However, scientists discovered early on in the pandemic that some people can catch and carry Covid-19 without showing symptoms.

And that’s another reason the coronavirus is spreading further and faster than the seasonal flu.

If someone has no idea they have the virus – because there are no signs of symptoms – they are not going to self-isolate or avoid people, which means they are inadvertently spreading it.

Some scientists have even suggested that around 40 to 50 percent of people who catch Covid-19 are asymptomatic.

There are some cases of flu where people have shown no symptoms, but one key difference is that the “incubation period” for Covid-19 is longer.

Prof. Marr said the incubation period – the time between exposure to a virus and symptoms or not – is up to 14 days for Covid, while people with flu tend to show symptoms within three days.

The flu “viral load” – the amount of a virus in the body fluid – does not begin until symptoms are visible.

With Covid-19, however, this can take up to fourteen days.

Higher virus spread

Prof. Marr said someone who has seasonal flu will spread it to 1.3 other people on average.

With the coronavirus, however, this virus spread is almost twice as high – to 2.5 people.

The transmission of Covid varies among children

Children show different covid symptoms compared to adults, and the World Health Organization said, “Children are major drivers of influenza virus transmission in the community.”

It added: “For the Covid-19 virus, initial data shows that children are less affected than adults and that clinical attack rates are low in the 0-19 age group.

“Further preliminary data from household transmission studies in China suggest that children of adults are infected and not the other way around.”

The WHO also recalled that in relation to seasonal flu, children are known to be at greater risk of developing serious infections.

Children under 6 months of age are at greatest risk of serious flu complications because their immune systems are less developed and more vulnerable, and they are too young to get the flu shot.

The WHO added, “For Covid-19, our current understanding is that age and the underlying conditions increase the risk of serious infections.”