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Hoots : How reliable is the often-quoted figure of 0.1% mortality of the flu? In many articles on the Corona virus there is often a mortality rate for seasonal flu of 0.1% cited. Here just one randomly selected example (but I have - freshhoot.com

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How reliable is the often-quoted figure of 0.1% mortality of the flu?
In many articles on the Corona virus there is often a mortality rate for seasonal flu of 0.1% cited. Here just one randomly selected example (but I have seen the number in many, many different articles in US, UK and German media:
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/04/coronavirus-flu-comparison/

“By comparison, seasonal flu generally kills far fewer than 1 percent of those infected,” [ WHO Director General] Tedros said of the global flu caseload during the news briefing

Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said that the mortality rate for seasonal flu is 0.1 percent.

This number is then compared to the case fatality rate of Corona virus. This number is much larger number for Corona virus (depending on data set and country seems to be between 0.8% and 4% for 'mature outbreaks, where the number of active cases is smaller than the number of resolved cases, essentially only true for China), with the 'official' WHO estimate currently at 3.4%. These estimates are then often accompanied by the caveat that the case fatality rate for the Corona virus is probably much exaggerated because people with mild symptoms are never tested. I can buy this argument but would the same argument not apply to the flu also?

How reliable is the 0.1% for the flu, and what data is this estimate based on? What are the primary sources for this information?


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