According to estimates, the 2017/18 flu wave cost the lives of around 25,100 people in Germany. Nobody has said a single word about it. With the corona virus, which is highly contagious but otherwise much more harmless, the world suddenly loses its mind. It is so absurd.
Fried - I read up on the 2017-2018 influenza outbreak in Germany which I understand was a very severe and abnormal event - so I understand where your opinion is coming from. In Canada - a country of 37,500,000 - we had 3,500 deaths and 12,200 hospitalizations in 2018-19, so a much lower proportion than your country.
However, I would like to point out a few important differences between seasonal influenza and COVID-19
1. Case fatality rate (risk of dying if you get infected) for influenza is estimated at 0.1%; COVID-19 between 1 and 2% and higher in some regions and definitely higher if you are older (like me)
2. There are influenza vaccines that will greatly lower the risk of severe morbidity due to the circulating influenza virus (here in Canada the vaccine is free and you can walk into any pharmacy and get vaccinated on your lunch break - no appointment needed - last year 42% of Canadians got the flu vaccine);
there is NO vaccine for COVID-19
3. Following on point 2 - influenza viruses circulate in global populations every year so there is a level of "herd" immunity from past exposures; there is no such herd immunity for COVID-19 so that there is a much higher potential for disease within a community as the population is 100% naive.
So you are correct - influenza is a very dangerous disease - my goodness why do we not all get vaccinated every year! But COVID-19 has the potential to be much more dangerous than the seasonal influenza. And until there is a vaccine with good efficacy that will be widely available to the world, I would support a very proactive precautionary approach to this infection rather than the much less effective reactionary one.
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