Why COVID-19 Is Much

#2: Contagiousness

The incubation period for the flu is 1-4 days before symptoms appear, while COVID-19’s incubation period can be 1-14 days. The measure to identify the contagiousness of a virus is called the “basic reproduction number,” which is symbolized as R0 (pronounced R-nought). This number is an estimated average number of people who catch a virus for every infected person. The flu has an R0 value of approximately 1.3, which means that on average, people with the virus give it to someone else about 30% of the time (though regionally and situationally there of course is a great deal of variance — this is a national average, after all).

The R0 value for COVID-19 is still being determined, but preliminary estimates have it somewhere between 2 and 3, though in certain regions it has been reported as high as 6. However, take R0 values with a grain of salt, as they are a trailing estimate and are notoriously tricky to get right. One of the big complications regarding this for COVID-19 is due to its long incubation period, where people who have yet to develop any symptoms are contagious. 

COVID-19 is more contagious than the flu and people with it are contagious for longer than the flu, two factors that have led to the virus being a pandemic in the first place.

#3: The Novelty of the Novel Coronavirus

Another differentiator between the flu and COVID-19 is that, while the flu has been known and managed for hundreds of years, one of the biggest challenges of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is that it is completely new. We simply don’t know a lot about how it spreads, how it infects people, the ways that it mutates as it moves through populations, and how the immune system responds to it. So we are essentially in the midst of a global trial run of trying to manage this new virus, without the extra safety precautions afforded to managing viruses like the flu (e.g. vaccines, approved antiviral drugs, and so on), which can help reduce duration, contagiousness, and slow down the spread of the flu through the community. Reportedly, we are still around a year away from a COVID-19 vaccine, and there are no approved antiviral treatments. 

#4: Death Rate

According to reports, the typical flu season in the U.S. has a death rate of approximately 0.1%. The death rate for COVID-19 in the US, on the other hand, has been reported to be approximately 3.9%. However, once again, due to the novelty of the virus, don’t take this rate as universal — it is, once again, an average based on the known data. First of all, not everyone who gets COVID-19 gets tested and diagnosed with the disease. Many people who get the illness do not seek out testing. Second, unlike the flu, everyone in the population is theoretically susceptible to COVID-19. What is clear, however, is that COVID-19 is significantly more fatal than the regular flu. How much this will change after a vaccine and other antiviral measures are introduced remains unknown. Never before has the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic for a coronavirus. They have declared flu pandemics, but this is the first type of pandemic for this type of virus.

#5: Prevention

Preventing becoming infected by and spreading COVID-19 is much more difficult than the flu. That’s why measures like wearing masks, social distancing, and so on have been implemented. To manage the pandemic, it is important to keep the rate of spread as slow as possible. Washing your hands like a pro, avoiding touching your mouth, eyes, and nose, avoiding contact with sick people, and staying home when you are sick, are some of the most effective preventative measures we have available to us. Don’t underestimate them! These are all effective ways of significantly reducing chances that you and those around you get COVID-19.