Coronavirus is a lot more deadly than the flu: report

A new study by the University of Washington has concluded that COVID-19 is a lot more deadly than the flu.

The national rate of death among people infected with coronavirus and who show symptoms is 1.3%, the study found. The comparable rate of death for the seasonal flu is 0.1%.

The study deduced that if researchers carried out an experiment in which 35.5 million people in the US contracted coronavirus this year — the same number of individuals who caught the flu in 2019 — there would be nearly 500,000 coronavirus deaths this year.

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Researchers stated that along with being more deadly, the coronavirus “is more infectious than flu and does not have any protection from a vaccine or treatment.” They believe that with mitigation strategies, the death toll will be lower.

The report also cited the recent White House Coronavirus Taskforce projections that “100,000–200,000 deaths this year from COVID-19 is made with assumptions about the effectiveness of social distancing directives and measures currently in place.”

Over the weekend, the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States reached the 1.5 million mark.

Washington State currently has 18,811 confirmed cases, with 7,565 in King County.