Why not? I don't remember people wearing black armbands during the 2017-2018 flu season when over 60,000 Americans died of the flu - the same targets, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.
But now, somehow THESE elderly and those with pre-existing conditions are sacred. Where was all this empathy two years ago?
Nearly 90% of the cases are mild meaning no hospitalization needed and in more advanced countries like South Korea the fatality rate is trending to less than 1%.
So why are we not upset about just passing 20,000 flu deaths this year again?
Are you serious? First of all, who is talking about empathy? Of course we have empathy for people who die of the flu, and of course we take precautions every year, especially when we hear it's worse than usual. But it's still a "known quantity" in that we expect it will happen.
Two huge differences with coronavirus (for now.) And they are obvious. One: No vaccine. Two: No treatment.
With the flu, you've got a chance. Two chances, actually, and then some of the responsibility is on you - for example, you choose whether or not to get the vaccine. You choose (if you have insurance) whether to go to the doctor and get tamiflu to lessen the effects.
Three: when was the last time the flu shut down Italy and Spain? Do you think that's done for empathy? No. It's done to prevent deaths and spread. It is spreading faster than the flu, and the death rate is many times higher than the flu.
Four: you can be infected, carrying, and spreading many days before you feel any symptoms, possibly up to two weeks.
Five: you're comparing numbers of deaths from full or nearly full seasons of the flu vs. just the tip of this coronavirus. Give it a minute, the numbers will go up, especially because we were unconscionably slow to respond at the outset for, of all things, political reasons and/or stupidity.
Again, this is not in a vacuum. Look at Italy. In one week, they went from 3000 infected to nearly 20,000 infected and 1,500 dead, plus total lockdown and no slowdown. How often does that happen with the flu?
So seriously, just stop it with that comparison.
I suspect, if this bug sticks around, next year when we (should) have vaccines and/or treatment, the response to it will look more like the flu. But right now our only protection is our own immune systems, and those of us with good ones have an obligation to protect those without good ones, and not just run around without a care distributing the virus.
Few are making too much of this. We're just not feeling the effects yet, and some of us are looking ahead to what may/is likely to follow in the coming weeks.
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