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Message: [QUOTE="UcMiami, post: 3473567, member: 199"] The difference is, depending on severity of the yearly strains, flu season results in: 9-45 million infections in the US each year 140,000-810,000 hospitalizations 12,000-61,000 deaths That is a 0.13% death rate from infection for the worst year. And we as humans around the world have deemed that to be 'acceptable' though the huge fear is that at some point in the future a flu strain will be as virulent as the 'Spanish' flu of 1917-20 which had a 3% or higher mortality rate. If such a flu strain were to reappear, all sorts of public measures would be rolled out. (There have been a few scares in the last 20 years - bird flu and swine flu) This virus is a relative of the SARS virus which killed about 10% of those infected. The coronavirus is currently estimated at about a 3% fatality rate which may put it in the sweet spot for a 'deadly' pandemic - easily transmitted and not too fatal so most of the people carrying it are able to continue passing it on. Counter-intuitively - the more deadly a virus after a certain point, the less like it is to spread. If everyone dies who gets it, they don't have the chance to spreading it. SARS while much more deadly, infected and killed many fewer people than covid19 already has. [/QUOTE]