New Hampshire Gov. Christopher Sununu (R) consistently refers to the coronavirus as “the flu,” a comparison that medical experts say is inaccurate and downplays the risk to individuals and the wider population.
“Once you get it ― you remember 98% of the people that get it are going to get better. And we’re going to have the flu. And then you’re going to be immune to it,” Sununu said in a radio interview on WRKO Friday. “So there is an end game here to be sure.”
Similarly, he said that people should “treat it as the flu, which it is,” in another radio interview two days ago.
And on March 11, he told New Hampshire Public Radio that there was no need for him to declare a state of emergency. At that point, there were five confirmed coronavirus cases in the state.
“The good news is, is that when you go on quarantine or God forbid, you should even get the virus, it’s about a two-week period, right? Either you’re going to have the flu for a couple of weeks. You’re going to be off for a couple of weeks. It’s not months, and months and months,” he said, again trying to downplay the disease’s severity. “So it is something that is very likely manageable from a financial standpoint.”
Trump has also repeatedly compared the coronavirus to the flu, trying to downplay the seriousness of the crisis.
“It’s a little like the regular flu that we have flu shots for,” he said in February. “And we’ll essentially have a flu shot for this in a fairly quick manner.”
As this dramatic change of heart illustrates, we still have a lot to learn about the novel coronavirus — and that alone, experts say, should be enough to motivate communities to work together to slow its progress. Studies suggest the differences between the flu and coronavirus are more nuanced than some people suggest.
In fact, health professionals point out important distinctions between COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2, and other viruses. They don’t advise mass hysteria, obviously, but they also don’t believe that doing nothing and/or going about business as usual is a smart move.
The World Health Organization said last week that coronavirus had become a pandemic, after characterizing the illness late last year as a series of epidemics. (An epidemic is a disease that infects regions or a community.) The “Spanish flu” from 1918 to 1919 and Black Death from 1347 to 1351 were two of the most extreme pandemics recorded in modern and medieval times.
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So what are the differences between the new coronavirus and the flu? For starters, there is no vaccine for COVID-19, and it could take many months or years to get one to market. And, unlike with influenza viruses for which there are several vaccines, humans have not built up an immunity over multiple generations. What’s worse, doctors fear the virus will mutate.
The first known person was reported to have contracted the virus on Dec. 1 in China; by now, it has spread to at least 150 countries or territories. Experts have advised changing behavior to limit the spread: Public officials in New York have said people should avoid taking mass transit, if possible. Italy has effectively quarantined its entire population. Israel, among other countries, has closed its land borders.
Of course, there are similarities between influenza and COVID-19. Both viruses are untreatable with antibiotics, and they have almost identical symptoms — fever, coughing, night sweats, aching bones, tiredness and, in more severe cases of both viruses, nausea and even diarrhea. They can both be spread through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing.
But doctors say their differences are just as varied. “It’s a little simple to think the novel coronavirus is just like flu,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told MarketWatch.
“We don’t want another flu,” he said. “This is additive, not in place of. Yes, the flu kills thousands of people every year, but we’re going to have more deaths.”
If Sununu wants to be a Trump Mini-Me, then he needs to get the boot. He is putting lives at risk. Click below to donate and get involved with the Democratic candidate you support for Governor: