Good question, Tracy. First of all, we had an influenza vaccine. Therefore, we could protect many people from the flu. Second, we also have antivirals that have been proven to work to shorten the course and severity of influenza if taken early. Third, in most years, the influenza https://twitter.com/tracylotz8/status/1292150152002596865

strain is similar enough to strains from prior years, that certain portions of our population may have some cross-reactivity that will provide some degree of protection even without the flu shot. Also, while technically, influenza doesn’t actually completely go away, we do

experience seasonality with the flu virus that limits the number of infections we see. Finally, with very few exceptions, there are not significant long-term consequences to influenza infection. For this Coronavirus, no vaccine yet, no antivirals available yet, except for those

with severe disease in the hospital, because this is a novel virus, no one is immune or protected, while there may be some cross-reactivity between this novel virus and other coronaviruses, that is not well understood yet, and we are seeing some alarming lasting consequences of

SARS-CoV-2 infection that may, in some cases, occur in people who had relatively mild infections. We are just beginning to see those, so we don’t fully understand the extent, the duration or severity of these complications and currently don’t understand what puts you at risk for

these complications. Plus, while we hoped for seasonality with this virus, we are not seeing it.