Flattening the curve certainly helps; that's something Italy was not able to do, and it certainly was one of the largest factors in overloading their public health infrastructure. That's why responsible social distancing, hand-washing, and self-isolation measures if you think you're sick, are useful and will continue to make sure our hospitals are not overloaded with cases to the point where that fatality rate increases solely because of hospital logistics.

I think everybody knows that the official numbers in the US and UK (and Italy) are underestimates of the true spread and that the real death rate is lower. However normal flu does not overwhelm hospitals like we're seeing here, and without hospital treatment there would be many more people dying. Not to mention that vunerable people can get flu shots and that's not an option here. Panic doesn't help but neither does business as usual. Sensible, consistant actions to limit transmission, taken by everybody, does.

I live in Italy. What you say is very dangerous. Panic doesn't help, neither is saying that this is just a flu. It can cause a severe condition and it's heavily contagious. We have a public health care system in Italy, our sick leaves are paid with virtually no limitation. It's not the same in the USA. This could be worse if it spreads in the USA. Listen to what this woman says in the post, she is RIGHT.

"there are likely hundreds of people in this country who have coronavirus without realizing it" Since I understand that you are talking about the USA, I would say that there are probably already thousands, or even tens of thousands of people infected. Social Distancing (even between family members at home!) and Clean Hands are crucial. Personal Responsibility is key! It is not about ME. It is about protecting me so that I do not infect you - and then your granny dies from it.

I've seen people die of the SAME respiratory collapse from influenza back in the medical school/student days. It's the same populations at risk as are at risk for coronavirus. The PANIC is different --- we lose $, productivity, etc., to flu EVERY Year. I'm downvoted constantly, but that's facts. We see outdoor triage, etc., in the US every year from *FLU* (2009 H1N1 particularly). This isn't special to Italy, and I'm not going to be told I don't "know". My husband has lymphoma. He gets the flu, he dies. He gets acold, he can die. He gets Covid, he dies. And I've seen people die of "everyday" FLU, so yes, I take it seriously, I'm not in denial, I'm just NOT IN PANIC.

What you are saying doesn't change anything, allow it to continue spreading, and even if it's a small percentage that die it will wreak the some destruction as in Italy. Italy where for infected people over the age of 70 the mortality is now greater than 1 in 4....just think about that for a second.

Seasonal flu typically has a fatality rate of less than 0.1% some more severe flues get up to maybe 0.2%. At the time of writing about 40 Americans have died from coronavirus. If the coronavirus has that low fatality rate wouldn't that suggest we might be looking at 20 000 to 40 000 cases in the US already?

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

Hey lets not forget that KS has also already had 48 deaths from the FLU! But they never called a state of the emergency for those people. Only when 1 person dies from C-19 is there a real problem? People are seriously crazy over this. Soon enough there will be a vaccine that will save the planet. But as with all infection diseases and illnesses there are and will be many who perish even with a vaccine. So really all this panic and fear the media has instilled in everyone's hearts is working for someone's agenda!