Perspectives on Coronavirus, Influenza, Swine Flu and the Spanish Flu of 1918

COVID-19 is a viral infection that jumped from animals to humans in the Chinese city of Wuhan late in December 2019.
It has a high degree of transmission between people through aerosol or water droplets.
Handwashing or using soap/water for at least 20 seconds can stop viral communicability and transfer between human contact.
Coronavirus can survive on hard surfaces if not sanitized, like metal and glass for up to 3 days, some sources say longer.
Coronavirus and Influenza can have crossover symptoms, but FEVER and DRY COUGH are most commonly associated with the Coronavirus. Body aches may present in both cases.
80% of young, healthy adults, and low risk individuals have mild symptoms like a short lived cough and fever of up to 3 days.
15% of those affected displayed more severe respiratory symptoms like shortness of breath and various respiratory difficulty.
5% of those affected need critical care, needing oxygen and pulmonary support from ICU.
Mortality rate of Coronavirus is about 1% or less, whereas the Influenza has about a .1% death rate. In some areas of China, mortality was around 2.3%, in other words, over 20 times more deadly than the Influenza.
This season alone (March 2020), the Coronavirus have caused 100,000+ illnesses worldwide, and about 3000 deaths.
At the same time, the U.S. had about 350,000 hospitalizations for Influenza virus and approximately 20,000 deaths this season alone!
Coronavirus became an epidemic, now a pandemic, because of it's aggressive infection transmissibility rather than for it's mortality.
The Swine Flu pandemic in 2009 killed around 150,000 - 575,000 people worldwide, but no aggressive quarantine and social distancing measures were invoked like the Coronavirus pandemic.
Influenza has a vaccine of debatable effectiveness, but there is no present vaccine for the Coronavirus, making this pandemic much more of an international concern than any prior pandemics.
Containment of the Coronavirus has been aggressive, including closures of public gatherings of >50 people, restaurants and dine-in facilities, gyms and entertainment venues, and many public gatherings like churches, concerts, schools and universities, and many workplaces.
Internet and mass communication has facilitated national and international containment efforts of Covid-19, allowing officials and agencies to share information and statistics to better understand the situation, unlike the Spanish Flu of 1918 which affected 500 million people worldwide, killing about 50-100 million people (one-third of the world population of that time).
The Spanish Flu had a 2.5% fatality rate (about 25 times more deadly than Influenza, and about 10-20 times more deadly than Coronavirus).