More and more studies are clearly showing that Covid 19 disease is more dangerous than flu. This also applies to younger people.
Munich – The question is as old as the corona pandemic * itself: Is Covid-19 more dangerous than the flu? According to the American Johns Hopkins University, as of May 9th, almost 84,800 people in Germany died in connection with Covid. But can you now simply compare these numbers with one of the previous years and contrast the flu deaths? We give an overview.
Corona more dangerous than flu? – Lauterbach says yes and posts graphics
The health politician of the SPD *, Karl Lauterbach, shared a graphic by the physicist Viola Priesemann on Saturday. The 39-year-old works for the Max Planck Society and, among other things, is investigating the spread of the virus. In the graphic shown, data from different countries are compared. It shows the death rate from infection with influenza, i.e. flu, and disease with Covid-19 *. The graphs clearly show that the risk of dying from the SARS-CoV-2 virus is higher at almost every age. In patients around the age of 70, the risk of death is even 25 times higher than in those with flu of the same age. In the case of 30-year-olds, the risk is five times higher. Lauterbach writes: “Good graphic that shows how much more dangerous Covid is than flu, even for 30-year-olds.”
Good graph that shows how much more dangerous Covid is than the flu, even for 30 year olds. Covid will remain an important problem, because such a virus will only become more harmless in decades. Therefore, a fast vaccination structure from research to vaccination must be permanent https://t.co/Akaf2Owe2k
– Karl Lauterbach (@Karl_Lauterbach) May 8, 2021
Numerous other studies show a similar picture. A study by the US Veterans Authority was recently published in the Ärzteblatt. The scientists compared 3,641 Covid patients with 12,676 flu patients. They found that the mortality rate among corona patients was five times higher. In addition, Covid 19 sufferers had to be ventilated four times more often and ended up in the intensive care unit two and a half times more often. The treatment times were on average three days longer.
Corona meets different requirements in the population than the flu
Further differences between the two diseases are the conditions that the two viruses encounter. The population now has a certain basic immunity against the influenza virus. Even if the virus mutates over and over again, people are better adapted to the disease. There are also effective drugs and therapies against the flu to treat the comorbidities. And the flu usually only affects the respiratory tract, while the SARS-CoV-2 virus can affect all organs, writes the ARD knowledge magazine Quarks with reference to various studies.
Then there is the vaccination *. While things have been slowly but steadily improving in Germany since the beginning of the year and more and more people have been vaccinated at least once (as of May 8, RKI: 26,836,612 first vaccinations), there has been an effective vaccination for influenza for many years. This halves the risk of people over 60 becoming infected with the flu. The Robert Koch Institute * estimates that 400,000 people over the age of 60 will be spared an illness every year, even if the influenza vaccination does not always work optimally. And similar to a Covid disease, vaccination also greatly reduces the risk of severe disease with the flu. (tel) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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List of rubric lists: © Michael Kappeler / dpa
