Author: Richard Fernandez (Page 2 of 3)
Faust, Jeremy Samuel, and Carlos Del Rio. “Assessment of Deaths From COVID-19 and From Seasonal Influenza.” Jama Network, 14 May 2020, jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2766121.
In this online article, the authors wrote that public officials have been comparing the COVID-19 mortality rate to the mortality rate of seasonal influenza as an attempt to minimize the effects of the ongoing pandemic. To support their claim, the authors say that the equivalence of deaths from COVID-19 and seasonal influenza do not match conditions in frontline clinics and hospitals, especially in pandemic hot zones were hospitals have been filled to full capacity, and have been worked beyond their limits. They also say that there has never been such a high demand on hospital resources in the United States, even during the worst flu seasons. The article states that the case fatality rate of the Diamond Princess cruise ship outbreak was 1.8%, thirteen deaths out of seven hundred and twelve cases, as of late April 2020. If this figure was adjusted to reflect the general population, the figure would have been closer to 0.5%. A case fatality rate of 0.5% would still be five times higher than the commonly cited case fatality rate of adult seasonal influenza. The authors of this article also claim that deaths from COVID-19 maybe be undercounted due to limitations of test capacity or false-negative virus test results. However, something else that’s been effecting the COVID-19 death count is that in some places like New York City, both probable, and confirmed, COVID-19 deaths are being reported. This has created the possibility that some deaths that have been labeled as having been caused by COVID-19 are not due to COVID-19.
The counts of people who have died from seasonal influenza could be less reliable than the counts of people who have died of Covid-19 because adult influenza deaths are not reportable to health authorities, unlike COVID-19 deaths. Epidemiologists actually have to rely on surveillance mechanisms that attempt to account for potential underreporting, due to the fact that adult seasonal influenza deaths are not reportable. I believe that this source is credible. I thought that the authors of this article provided there readers a very informative viewpoint, and used evidence to back up there claims. The authors are both medical doctors which I believe are appropriate credentials for this topic. I have two questions. Could the reason why seasonal influenza isn’t as deadly as COVID-19 be because we actually have vaccines for seasonal influenza? What is the medical profile of the people dying from Covid-19? I believe that it is important to know how dangerous these diseases can be, and that the people who are more vulnerable to these diseases like people with preexisting conditions should hear about this, and do what they can to stay safe.
Two quotes from this article that I think are important are:
“Comparisons between SARS-CoV-2 mortality and seasonal influenza mortality must be made using an apples-to-apples comparison, not an apples-to-oranges comparison. Doing so better demonstrates the true threat to public health from COVID-19.”
“Although officials may say that SARS-CoV-2 is just another flu, this is not true.”
