Leave it up to Americans to spread havoc within the country for a rare illness only affecting 15 people in
the states.
COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan, China, is commonly known as the coronavirus, has ignited a lot of attention because of its widespread outbreak in China.
Because the outbreak is mostly concentrated in Asia, Americans are not familiar with the disease.
The lack of control and understanding about the virus has caused hysteria to spread.
This manic manifestation is worrisome because people are unaware that their flu symptoms can be a lot more serious than Wuhan’s infamous malady.
Influenza is far more of a threat to residents of the United States, and should be treated as such.
Symptoms as common as a fever and sore throat are dismissed as something ordinary and treatable, especially in comparison to COVID-19, which causes fever, shortness of breath and pneumonia.
The harsh reality is that people are more likely to face the risk of complications or untreatable infections from the flu.
That’s right. If you see someone coughing, start hoping for COVID-19, because the flu may be your worst enemy yet.
According to the John Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering’s COVID-19 mapping report, there has been a whopping 69,288 cases diagnosed since Dec. 2019.
The majority of these cases have been from China.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported between 26 million and 36 million influenza cases in America from Oct. 2019 to Feb. 8.
If this is not enough evidence that the flu poses a larger threat, then hopefully death is a persuading factor.
While COVID-19 has killed 1,870 people, all but five in China, the flu has killed between 14,000 and 36,000 within the same time frame across the world, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Is this an astounding difference? Yes, but Americans seem to be blind to scientific evidence.
What a big surprise.
For those who are still not convinced, you can be assured that unless you are 60 years old or above with a weakened immune system and have had physical contact with someone who has COVID-19, you are most likely bed-ridden from a severe cold or flu.
A recent CNBC report showed that those under 39 who were diagnosed with COVID-19 only made up 10% of the nearly 70,000 affected.
China’s Health Committee reports that most of those who were diagnosed also suffer pre-existing conditions that made them more susceptible.
On top of this, it seems to be that children are narrowly escaping this affliction, but the same cannot be said for those in America riddled with the flu.
In the CDC’s list of flu indicators, children are expected to face a plethora of symptoms that can prove more detrimental to their growth as opposed to grown adults.
Nevertheless, this distraction from a serious illness is only exacerbated by American news broadcasts that infiltrate minds with hypochondriac panic.
Instead of focusing on the flu and its damaging effects, the media is focused on scaring people about a foreign incubated virus.
When America’s trusted media sources provide a bandwagon platform, people delude themselves into furthering this national fear of international exposure.
It’s important that we realize our fears are media inherited, but our illnesses are from environmental exposure.
Instead of worrying about the slim chance of COVID-19, let’s start getting flu shots.
