Misinformed minimizes love to portray COVID-19 as just a flu. In 2021 the flu accounted for 5,000 deaths in America. In 2021 there were 460,000 COVID deaths in America. That is a hell of a lot more deaths due to COVID-19. COVID is not the flu.
Influenza (flu) and COVID-19 are both contagious respiratory illnesses, but they are caused by different viruses. COVID-19 spreads more easily than flu. Compared with flu, COVID-19 can cause more severe illness. Other diseases with flu like symptoms include, Polio, Legionella, Lyme Disease, HIV, TB, Leishmaniasis, Syphilis, Hepatitus, Smallpox. Histoplasmosis, and Antrax.
Even a ‘mild’ case of COVID can result in destruction of the bodies immune response to to other viruses. COVID damages vital organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, nervous system and can cause Long COVID in about one in five people infected. Symptoms of Long COVID can appear months after the initial infection ‘recovery’.
COVID is not the flu. COVID is a much deadlier viral pathogen with debilitating long term effects which can destroy any quality of life. “COVID damages CD8 and T cell response an effect akin to that observed in earlier studies showing long term damage to the immune system after infection with viruses such as hepatitis C or HIV.” –NIH funded study Getting infected with COVID offers no immunity boost.
3 years into this pandemic and the American response continues to be denial. COVID is not the flu.