[topkai22]

For why we are collectively concerned about a good comparison is influenza (flu), which kills millions worldwide each year and has a case fatality rate of around 0.1%. I believe flu is the single deadliest pathogen worldwide currently.

Covid-19 appears to be extremely virulent and at least as lethal if not several orders of magnitude more so than influenza.

The immediate reason why is Covid-19 is getting so much attention compared to flu in the news media is that it is new. However, some of the reason why it’s getting so much attention from public health officials is that

1) it’s not well understood yet, and the upper bounds currently on virulence and lethality are very high

2) it appears virulent enough that it could become endemic in humans, meaning that we could be dealing with annual epidemics like the flu.

[WaltPurvis]

> a good comparison is influenza (flu), which kills millions worldwide each year

That's a slight exaggeration. The number is in the hundreds of thousands, not millions.

[topkai22]

You are right, except on exceptional bad years. Apologize, had the higher number in my head.