I found this highly illuminating article in Scientific American: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/
"The 25,000 to 69,000 numbers that Trump cited do not represent counted flu deaths per year; they are estimates that the CDC produces by multiplying the number of flu death counts reported by various coefficients produced through complicated algorithms. These coefficients are based on assumptions of how many cases, hospitalizations, and deaths they believe went unreported. In the last six flu seasons, the CDC’s reported number of actual confirmed flu deaths—that is, counting flu deaths the way we are currently counting deaths from the coronavirus—has ranged from 3,448 to 15,620, which far lower than the numbers commonly repeated by public officials and even public health experts.
There is some logic behind the CDC’s methods. There are, of course, some flu deaths that are missed, because not everyone who contracts the flu gets a flu test. But there are little data to support the CDC’s assumption that the number of people who die of flu each year is on average six times greater than the number of flu deaths that are actually confirmed. In fact, in the fine print, the CDC’s flu numbers also include pneumonia deaths."
"The question remains. Can we accurately compare the toll of the flu to the toll of the coronavirus pandemic?
To do this, we have to compare counted deaths to counted deaths, not counted deaths to wildly inflated statistical estimates. If we compare, for instance, the number of people who died in the United States from COVID-19 in the second full week of April to the number of people who died from influenza during the worst week of the past seven flu seasons (as reported to the CDC), we find that the novel coronavirus killed between 9.5 and 44 times more people than seasonal flu. In other words, the coronavirus is not anything like the flu: It is much, much worse."
@no1marauder
A Republican Congressman or Senator, Not sure which, said he always describes the death, not by what caused it. He said he would put on the death certificate respiratory infection, not the flu.
But now every death that can be attributed to covi19 is. So you are comparing apples to oranges.
@eladar saidWhy not put "cardiac arrest" on every death certificate if you want to be that stupid?
@no1marauder
A Republican Congressman or Senator, Not sure which, said he always describes the death, not by what caused it. He said he would put on the death certificate respiratory infection, not the flu.
But now every death that can be attributed to covi19 is. So you are comparing apples to oranges.
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@no1marauder saidI would hedge your bets a little bit. How many flu tests are administered annually?
In all probability, COVID-19 deaths are being significantly undercounted and the CDC will eventually correct those figures as it does for the flu.
"U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating laboratories and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System laboratories, which include both clinical and public health laboratories throughout the United States, contribute to virologic surveillance for influenza. During September 30, 2018–May 18, 2019, clinical laboratories tested 1,145,555 specimens for influenza virus; among these, 177,039 ( 15.5% ) tested positive, including 167,529 ( 95.0% ) for influenza A and 9,510 ( 5.0% ) for influenza B. The percentage of specimens testing positive for influenza each week ranged from 1.7% to 26.2%."
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6824a3.htm?s_cid=mm6824a3_w
How many COVID test have been administered to date?
According to Worldometers: 6,690,837
The adjustment on COVID Deaths is not going to scale like Flu deaths. They will probably end up doing 10 - 20 times the testing per season on COVID this year. Their confidence interval could be substantially smaller.
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@no1marauder saidfukin idiot!
In all probability, COVID-19 deaths are being significantly undercounted and the CDC will eventually correct those figures as it does for the flu.
@no1marauder saidHmmm, sounds familiar.
I found this highly illuminating article in Scientific American: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/
"The 25,000 to 69,000 numbers that Trump cited do not represent counted flu deaths per year; they are estimates that the CDC produces by multiplying the number of flu death counts ...[text shortened]... onal flu. In other words, the coronavirus is not anything like the flu: It is much, much worse."[/b]