Here’s a fairly practical approach to show why comparing this to the seasonal flu is apples to oranges.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...rticle/2766121
Some highlights:
“This apparent equivalence of deaths from COVID-19 and seasonal influenza does not match frontline clinical conditions, especially in some hot zones of the pandemic where ventilators have been in short supply and many hospitals have been stretched beyond their limits. The demand on hospital resources during the COVID-19 crisis has not occurred before in the US, even during the worst of influenza seasons. Yet public officials continue to draw comparisons between seasonal influenza and SARS-CoV-2 mortality, often in an attempt to minimize the effects of the unfolding pandemic....
The CDC, like many similar disease control agencies around the world, presents seasonal influenza morbidity and mortality not as raw counts but as calculated estimates based on submitted International Classification of Diseases codes.2 Between 2013-2014 and 2018-2019, the reported yearly estimated influenza deaths ranged from 23 000 to 61 000.3 Over that same time period, however, the number of counted influenza deaths was between 3448 and 15 620 yearly.4 On average, the CDC estimates of deaths attributed to influenza were nearly 6 times greater than its reported counted numbers.“
Main takeaway is that we obviously need more data (shocker) but the data is collected differently and we are not truly able to compare these diseases. As someone who comes in regular contact with flu and COVID first hand, I can say that the course of illness is just something we have never seen here. It is highly variable person to person, which is scary, yet the reason for cautious re-openings (which are very much needed).