[Jedd]

Yup, I get that mortality rates are relatively low - but finding quantifiable QoL impact is extremely difficult, especially as these effects can last for months.

Reporting seems to focus exclusively on mortality, which I suspect leads to people feeling much more confident than if long term health impacts were more clearly reported.

[mikem170]

When I looked into it I was shocked at how many people have long term affects after the flu. One of the studies I saw in a comprehensive paper looking at heart swelling and the flu showed a shocking amount of this in even non-hospitalized flu patients! [0]

Apparently any virus that attacks the lungs and.or nervous system leaves behind a lot of damaged people. Most of the time things like heart swelling go away after a couple months. But some people are permanently damaged. This can happen with all viruses, even the common cold kills people, and there is no indication yet that this virus is any different.

[0] http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.685...