I get it. It's a virus. It's bad.

But the US has literally declared a "state of emergency" concerning this, and there's tons and tons of info flying around in the media about how terrible it is.

What I don't get is that... it doesn't seem that bad?

I guess I'm mostly just comparing it to the flu, another virus with similar symptoms, that takes several thousand lives in the US each year.

In the 2017-2018 flu season, roughly 80k people died from the flu in the US. And yet I never see anyone panicking about that?

Even this season alone, of the ~10k people who died of the flu, ~70 of those deaths were children. Isn't that enough cause for alarm?

On the other hand, the Coronavirus has taken less than 300 lives worldwide (zero in the US, I believe?). Why is it front page news, so to speak?

And I did consider the fact that there is currently no vaccine for the Coronavirus, but that's almost the same for the flu. We have vaccines for the flu, yes, but considering how rapidly different strains of the flu evolve, with no year being the same, even those vaccines aren't doing much to help. I've heard they've been especially ineffective this year as well unfortunately.

Note: I'm not an anti-vaxxer. I got my flu shot this year and do so every year. While getting vaccinated for the flu often isn't anywhere near foolproof though, it usually helps you avoid the worst of it and get over it quicker if you do happen to catch it. It helps cut down the spread as well, and currently it's our best line of defense against the flu other than your standard hygienic practices.

In any case, maybe I'm just missing something? I have been wanting to bring this up all week but didn't necessarily want to get attacked or downvoted to oblivion. In the end, curiosity won out, so it is what it is. /shrug

Your thoughts?

UPDATE

Okay, so it's been 5 months since I originally posted this, and I just want to say that I very quickly caught on to the situation, as we all pretty much were forced to, and I apologize if my questioning seemed offensive or ignorant.

I've literally just lived through SO many viral scares that started out the exact same as this one. They were blown incredibly out of proportion most times. It just so happens that this time was the real freaking deal. Go figure.

Despite the fact that I recognize that I was wrong in my general thinking on this matter, I still believe that given what I had to work on at the time, along with information on past viral scares, that it was completely reasonable for me to question the state of affairs at the time.

Again, never meant to offend or come off as some nutter, like the people who go around claiming this whole thing is some worldwide conspiracy (lol). Just a regular guy who questions things occasionally.

Good luck everyone with riding out the rest of this shit! ✌🏻