Folks fretting about the coronavirus are forgetting there’s another virus already running rampant in the United States, one that’s killed nearly 20 times as many people in this country alone.

Influenza has already taken the lives of 10,000 Americans this season, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 19 million have caught the flu, and an estimated 180,000 became so ill they landed in the hospital.

“Influenza is easier to pick up and there are far, far more cases,” said Dr. Alan Taege, an infectious disease physician at the Cleveland Clinic. “It’s already much larger than coronavirus has been so far in the whole world, in our own country alone.”

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The CDC predicts that at least 12,000 Americans will die from the flu in any given year. As many as 61,000 people died in the 2017-2018 flu season, and 45 million were infected.

SOURCES: Alan Taege, M.D., infectious disease physician, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio; Bernard Camins, M.D., medical director, infection prevention, Mount Sinai Health System, New York City

Full story here at HealthDay

From the CDC today:

There have been 2,462 associated deaths worldwide; no deaths have been reported in the United States. Fourteen cases have been diagnosed in the United States, and an additional 39 cases have occurred among repatriated persons from high-risk settings, for a current total of 53 cases within the United States.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6908e1.htm

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about this year’s flu season.

See also their section on the Coronavirus