# Coronavirus vs. Swine Flu (Why the panic NOW?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418 "2020-03-13T16:07:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/1 "2020-03-13T16:07:44Z")
There were about 10,000 dead in 2009 from the swine flu, but I don’t remember everything being canceled. I wonder if people saw the word “flu” and thought “Oh no biggie” So why is there so much panic, cancellations, closings, quarantines (even an entire country) when there wasn’t so much back in 2009? I don’t remember even caring about the swine flu, but me (and everyone around me, in real life and online) can only talk about the Corona-Virus. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/2 "2020-03-13T16:17:36Z")
[It spreads _fast_ and people can have it while showing zero symptoms.](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000/) ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/3 "2020-03-13T16:23:35Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [It spreads _fast_ and people can have it while showing zero symptoms.](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000/) Thanks for that. I knew it, but maybe time has separated me since I notice such a disparity… But of course, we don’t know how many will/can die until it peaks. Thanks for the article. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/4 "2020-03-13T16:33:56Z")
Here’s an interesting article on that very subject from Business Insider: [How the Coronavirus Compares to SARS, Swine Flu, and Other Epidemics](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-compared-to-sars-swine-flu-mers-zika-2020-3) Summary: Swine flu affected more people but the mortality rate was way lower (.02%) than Covid-19. Also compares with SARS and MERS, which were serious but were more easily contained. So to me the conclusion seems to be that Covid-19 has a more serious combination of being easily spread and having a relatively high mortality rate compared to other recent disease scares. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/5 "2020-03-13T16:59:05Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Here’s an interesting article on that very subject from Business Insider: [How the Coronavirus Compares to SARS, Swine Flu, and Other Epidemics](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-compared-to-sars-swine-flu-mers-zika-2020-3) > > Summary: Swine flu affected more people but the mortality rate was way lower (.02%) than Covid-19. > > Also compares with SARS and MERS, which were serious but were more easily contained. > > So to me the conclusion seems to be that Covid-19 has a more serious combination of being easily spread and having a relatively high mortality rate compared to other recent disease scares. And of course in 2009 we had a government that responded quickly and knew what it was doing: we tested \>1,000,000 people for the virus within a month from the first diagnosed case in the U.S. Here it is, more than 50 days since the first case of COVID-19 diagnosed in the U.S., and we’ve only just tested 10,000 people for it. One of the things that’s increasing the potential deadliness of COVID-19 is the all but nonexistent response by the Federal government. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/6 "2020-03-13T17:13:54Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Here’s an interesting article on that very subject from Business Insider: [How the Coronavirus Compares to SARS, Swine Flu, and Other Epidemics](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-compared-to-sars-swine-flu-mers-zika-2020-3) > > Summary: Swine flu affected more people but the mortality rate was way lower (.02%) than Covid-19. > > Also compares with SARS and MERS, which were serious but were more easily contained. > > So to me the conclusion seems to be that Covid-19 has a more serious combination of being easily spread and having a relatively high mortality rate compared to other recent disease scares. Wow, swine flu wasn’t THAT much more deadly than the regular flu, whose mortality rate isn’t that much lower (depending on the source)… Thanks for the article. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/7 "2020-03-13T17:35:56Z")
Swine flu did a test drive in 1976. Oh, the hype! Oh, the worries! Oh, the humanity! USA had had enough warning, I guess, and there was plenty of vaccine. All the news outlets warned, “Get immunized now!” I remember standing in line at a shopping mall to get my shot. It was via air gun, no needle. Damn thing punched my arm so hard, I would have preferred a needle! People were told to expect the shot to make them miserable for a while, but this was infinitely preferable to the actual Swine Flu. The Swine Flu was so a non-event. But then later, much later, people had added “Epstein-Barr” to their vocabulary… ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/8 "2020-03-13T17:53:23Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Here’s an interesting article on that very subject from Business Insider: [How the Coronavirus Compares to SARS, Swine Flu, and Other Epidemics](https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-compared-to-sars-swine-flu-mers-zika-2020-3) > > Summary: Swine flu affected more people but the mortality rate was way lower (.02%) than Covid-19. > > Also compares with SARS and MERS, which were serious but were more easily contained. > > So to me the conclusion seems to be that Covid-19 has a more serious combination of being easily spread and having a relatively high mortality rate compared to other recent disease scares. Best estimate I saw for COVID-19 mortality is 3.5%. So using that 0.2% for “Swine Flu,” my desktop calculator tells me novel coronavirus is **175 times** deadlier. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/9 "2020-03-13T18:25:55Z")
I think the internet is a significant factor. Swine flu may have been a major news story back in the seventies. But back then, a major news story meant you heard about it for maybe ten minutes a day. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/10 "2020-03-13T21:31:18Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > Best estimate I saw for COVID-19 mortality is 3.5%. So using that 0.2% for “Swine Flu,” my desktop calculator tells me novel coronavirus is **175 times** deadlier. Typo I assume with .2% instead of .02% because your calculation is correct. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/11 "2020-03-13T21:38:24Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > And of course in 2009 we had a government that responded quickly and knew what it was doing: we tested \>1,000,000 people for the virus within a month from the first diagnosed case in the U.S. > > Here it is, more than 50 days since the first case of COVID-19 diagnosed in the U.S., and we’ve only just tested 10,000 people for it. One of the things that’s increasing the potential deadliness of COVID-19 is the all but nonexistent response by the Federal government. The testing factor is huge. To quote Rumsfeld, sort of, we don’t know what we don’t know. Without testing, we’re just guessing. [This article](https://medium.com/@tomaspueyo/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca) does a really good job of laying out what happens to the population when isolation is postponed while the virus is growing exponentially/ Without strong, immediate action, we’re looking at hundreds of thousands or millions of American deaths. I’m trying to think of others time in our history where that has happened - the Civil War comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/12 "2020-03-14T04:41:37Z")
There were 13,000 deaths from swine flu, out of 60-million confirmed cases. Corona is currently projected to have a 3.4% mortality rate, which would kill 2-milllion out of 60-million ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/13 "2020-03-14T11:49:40Z")
> [@VOW](#): > > Swine flu did a test drive in 1976. Oh, the hype! Oh, the worries! Oh, the humanity! > > USA had had enough warning, I guess, and there was plenty of vaccine. All the news outlets warned, “Get immunized now!” I remember standing in line at a shopping mall to get my shot. It was via air gun, no needle. Damn thing punched my arm so hard, I would have preferred a needle! > > People were told to expect the shot to make them miserable for a while, but this was infinitely preferable to the actual Swine Flu. > > The Swine Flu was so a non-event. > > But then later, much later, people had added “Epstein-Barr” to their vocabulary… > ~VOW I don’t think you mean Epstein-Barr but Guillian-Barre. And given what Spanish Flu/H1N1/Swine Flu did in 1918, it’s prudent to get the vaccine despite the slight risk. > **[GBS (Guillain-Barré Syndrome) and Vaccines | Vaccine Safety | CDC](https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/guillain-barre-syndrome.html)** > > People can develop GBS after having the flu or other infections (such as cytomegalovirus and Epstein Barr virus). On very rare occasions, they may develop GBS in the days or weeks after getting a vaccination. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-vs-swine-flu-why-the-panic-now/849418/14 "2020-03-14T13:40:30Z")
[COVID-19 is not the Flu. It’s worse.](https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/13/21176735/covid-19-coronavirus-worse-than-flu-comparison) (Vox)