When we analyse stocks we often do on a like for like basis to...

When we analyse stocks we often do on a like for like basis to make a fair comparison. By any metric, Covid-19 is not just the regular 'flu because it is much more contagious, deadly and health impairing even when there's heightened awareness of hand hygiene, mask wearing, social distancing and other tight social restrictions such as border closures. As it's a novel virus it would be reckless to dismiss the long term health impairments for survivors as we don't have much in the way of baseline data. The academics are right to be cautious and encourage extensive preventative measures to control spread. Without those measures the death toll would be far higher. To say the impact of Covid-19 is no more than the regular 'flu is intellectually dishonest because it clearly ignores the preventative measures taken between the two viruses and doesn't compare on a like for like basis.

"Meyerowitz-Katz determined that somewhere between 1 and 10 people die for every 100,000 that are infected. For COVID-19, that number ranges between 500 and 1,000 deaths per 100,000 infections. By his calculations, the coronavirus is likely to be 50 to 100 times more deadly than the seasonal flu, which supports the Columbia University findings." (Nat. Geographic July 2 2020)
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