How Does the New Coronavirus Compare with the Flu?

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February 07, 2020

Dear Reader, Astronomers have just discovered an ultra-massive galaxy that grew rapidly when the universe was young and then, just as quickly, became inactive, tantalizing researchers. Next up, a new study suggests that bumblebee populations have plunged in both Europe and North America during the last few decades—and climate change is at least partly to blame. And lastly, the new coronavirus has so far led to thousands of illnesses and hundreds of deaths in numerous countries around the world. But those numbers pale in comparison to the flu. In the U.S. alone, the flu has already caused an estimated 19 million illnesses and 10,000 deaths this season, according to the CDC. Our main story today explains how these viruses compare, and which is more concerning.

Sunya Bhutta, Senior Editor, Audience Engagement @sunyaaa

Public Health How Does the New Coronavirus Compare with the Flu? The flu has already caused about 10,000 deaths this season in the U.S. alone By Rachael Rettner,LiveScience

Space Ancient Giant Galaxy Grew Fast and Died Young Astronomers are puzzling over how this cosmic giant arose and expired so quickly in the early universe By Mike Wall,SPACE.com

Conservation Rising Temperatures Are Partly to Blame in Bumblebees' Decline The combination of climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use is leading to local extinctions of bee species By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

Cognition How Does a Mammalian Brain Forget? A mouse study shows immune cells gobbling up the connections between memory-associated neurons By Diana Kwon

Space Rocks, Rockets and Robots: The Plan to Bring Mars Down to Earth Coordinated by NASA and ESA, an ambitious effort to retrieve samples from the Red Planet faces major obstacles By Robin George Andrews

EARTH Ocean Currents Are Speeding Up, Driven by Faster Winds Climate change may in part be spurring the acceleration, which could change how heat and nutrients are pushed around the oceans By Chelsea Harvey,E&E News

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FROM THE ARCHIVE We Need a Universal Flu Vaccine before the Next Pandemic Strikes A century after the deadly pandemic of 1918, we're still not safe By Catharine I. Paules,Anthony S. Fauci | February 2018

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Despite the morbidity and mortality with influenza, there's a certainty... You could predict pretty accurately what the range of the mortality is and the hospitalizations, as we've done over the years. The issue now with this [coronavirus] is that there's a lot of unknowns." Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

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