Journal of the Virus Year: My experiences with the virus: March 9, 2020

Walter Clark, American, 1848–1917 Public Domain https://www.si.edu/object/landscape:chndm_1929-13-27-b

In the midst of an international hysteria about the novel coronavirus COVID-19, it is interesting to review the current statistics for seasonal flu in the United States. Here is the summary.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

Reminder, this is just the United States. Now, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 is currently, as of the date of this post, at the following statistics:

• 111,397 total confirmed cases in the world
• 3,892 total deaths in the world
• 600 confirmed cases in the United States

See Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE or https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

Hmm. No one is buying toilet paper or water worrying about the flu. No one is quarantining millions of people over the flu.  No one is shutting down museums, parks, and other destinations over the flu. No one is telling the elderly to stay inside and to avoid crowds because of the flu. Hardly anyone is buying or wearing a facemask because of the flu. I had the flu, the real flu, about three years ago and no one interviewed me for the news or avoided me and told me to go home. The stock market did not collapse over the flu. No politician made comments about the flu except in passing. 

What is the difference?

I really don't have an answer to that question. 

My grandson got home from South Korea and apparently, my daughter and her husband have worked out the two-week quarantine. We have decided to carry on our activities as usual unless and until someone in authority tells us otherwise. 

There is a reason for writing about the virus simply because it is causing such a huge reaction. I am guessing that the U.S. number of cases is vastly under-reported.

Stay tuned as I watch.