IS COVID VIRUS MORE DEADLY THAN THE FLU VIRUS?

A study in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine:Comparison of the characteristics, morbidity, and mortality of COVID-19 and seasonal influenza:a nationwide, population-based retrospective cohort study [of more than 89,000 patients with COVID-19 and more than 45,000 patients wth influenza [the flu]] was published December 17, 2020, showed that the risk of death was 3 times higher for COVID-19 than for influenza for all comorbidities except only 2 times higher for pulmonary bacterial coinfection. For those patients older than 50 and younger than 18 the mortality rate was 10 times higher for COVID-19 compared to influenza, especially for adolescents who were also more likely to be overweight.

Another study published on line December 15, 2020 in the British Medical Journal analyzed data from the US Department of Veteran's Affairs for more thah 3600 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 between February 1 and June 17 of 2020 and more than 12,600 patients hospitalized with flu between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019. The death rate among COVID-19 patients was 18.5% and 5.3% for the flu. The COVID-19 patients were 4 times more likely to require breathing machines and 2.5 times more likely to be admitted to ICUs.

So, both of these studies found that the death rate from COVID-19 was at least 3 times higher compared to the flu and it was also clear that COVID-19 infections were more severe.