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Covid is still 35% deadlier than flu, study finds
Despite the belief that Covid is no longer a serious virus, the disease is still deadlier than the flu, new research has shown.
Patients hospitalized for Covid in the last year were more 35 percent likely to die and compared with those in hospital for seasonal influenza, a study by doctors at the VA St Louis Health Care System in Missouri found.
But the research also recognized rates of serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths from Covid have dramatically decreased since the first year of the pandemic, when Covid was five times more deadly than flu.
It comes as the latest Covid variants nicknamed 'FLiRT' are sweeping the nation after mutating the virus in a way that it evades the human immune systems.
Covid had consistently caused a higher percentage of American deaths than flu throughout the end of 2023
Covid deaths have decreased dramatically over the last two years. The death rate for the week ending May 4 2024 is just 153, compared to 4,165 for the same week in 2021
The study, published in JAMA, pointed out that there were nearly twice as many hospitalizations for Covid compared to flu between 2023 and 2024.
In the first year of the pandemic, patients in hospital were almost five times more likely to die than patients with the flu.
The researchers used the US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health databases and included patients who had a diagnosis of Covid or seasonal flu between October 1, 2023 and March 27, 2024.
This resulted in 2,647 patients with flu and 8,625 with Covid.
They followed participants for 30 days, until death, or until March 31, 2024.
Those with Covid had a death rate of 5.7 percent after 30 days, compared to those with flu who had a 4.24 percent rate of death.
Covid can cause different complications from the flu, such as blood clots and long Covid.
Last month, the CDC detected KP.1.1 and KP.2 variants in wastewater sampling, finding the latter made up about a quarter of new Covid cases
The researchers used the US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health databases and included patients who had a diagnosis of Covid or seasonal flu between October 1, 2023 and March 27, 2024
The average age of both flu and Covid patients was 74, and the overwhelmingly majority were men.
New variants of Covid have continued to pop up, including the emergence of JN.1, the main variant in the US since the end of December in 2023.
The researchers remarked that there was no significant difference in risk of death among those hospitalized for Covid before and during the JN.1-predominant era, suggesting JN.1 was not any deadlier than the ones that came before it.
Last month, the CDC detected KP.1.1 and KP.2 variants in wastewater sampling, finding the latter made up about a quarter of new Covid cases.
But an infectious disease doctor told DailyMail.com that these new mutations, which alter the 'spike proteins' of the coronavirus, also appear to make the pandemic illness less capable of penetrating and infecting human cells.
This mixed blessing has medical professionals warning of an impending Covid wave this summer, which should make these sneakier — but less infectious — strains of the virus more common.
Covid deaths have decreased dramatically over the last two years.
The death rate for the week ending May 4 2024 is just 153, compared to 4,165 for the same week in 2021.